Political controversy in the US erupted over the statements of the US President Barack Obama who avoided linking Islam to terrorism. Politicians, mainly Republicans, criticized Obama saying the United States could not fight an unidentified enemy.
Other politicians and Obama administration officials menawhile praised Obama's strategy saying it was reasonable.
Obama was keen during the global summit, held recently in Washington to counter extremism, not to mention "Islamist extremism," a reservation that the opposition took advantage of.
The US president condemned, during the summit the idea which says that the "West is at war with Islam" calling it "an ugly lie."
Obama, who delievred a famous speech in Cairo in 2009 as means of stretching his hand to the Islamic world, appealed to the international community to fight extremism.
Republican leader John McCain responded to Obama's statement on his Twitter account saying: "The notion that radical Islam isn't at war with the West is an ugly lie."
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz joined McCain's camp against Obama, one of the pillars of the US administration during the era of former Republican President George W. Bush and current advisor to the foreign policy of his brother Jeb Bush, a potential presidential candidate for 2016. Wolfowitz said that denying a link between Islam and terrorism was wrong.
"I think what we need to say is what we're dealing with is a totalitarian ideology that exploits Islam and many of our best friends and allies in the fight against that ideology are going to be Muslims themselves," Wolfowitz to the CNN in a statement Sunday.
Professor of international affairs at George Washington University Walter Reich criticized the US president saying he must be clear as war on extremism is a war on violent Islamism.
On the other hand, the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter called on Sunday during a visit to Kuwait for the need to differentiate between mainsteam Muslim world and extremists, praising Obama's point.
Political analyst and presenter of GPS program on the CNN Fareed Zakaria said there are reasons behind Obama's refraining from describing the Islamic State as extremist Muslims, pointing out that such a description would push many Muslims to feel that their religion has been attached unfairly to extremism, as well as the impact of that on leaders who said the the IS does not represent Islam.
