[PJ] WASHINGTON -- CIA Director John Brennan said comments that "taint" Islam "as being the source of the problem" are "tremendously detrimental to our interests and to a better understanding of this phenomenon" of terrorism.
Speaking at the Washington Ideas Forum this week, Brennan said he's met with "princes or presidents and prime ministers throughout the Middle East" who are "outraged that their community -- their Muslim community -- has been infected by this cancer, individuals who have this distorted and very perverted interpretation of Islam that pursue these psychopathic agendas of horrific violence, and they recognize that they have a very important role -- the leading role to help purge their communities of these influences."
"These individuals who are fanatics -- extremists and terrorists -- they are driven by this ideology that is not rooted in Islam," Brennan said. "It's a psychopathic ideology that is very absolutist, that either you are with us or against us."
"And that's why the establishment of the caliphate -- the so-called caliphate by ISIL, as well as al-Qaeda's agenda, really, are trying to cause this ...clash of civilizations. They want to drive this wedge between the West and the Muslim world." |