Obama: 'No religion is responsible for terrorism'

President Barack Obama
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Obama on Wednesday called for a nuanced approach to understanding and confronting global terrorism, saying that the U.S. was not "at war with Islam," but rather at war with those who "perverted" the religion.

"No religion is responsible for terrorism," Obama said during a White House terror summit. "People are responsible for violence and terrorism."

From there, Obama argued that groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda should be thought of primarily as terrorist, not religious, organizations. And addressing America's own struggles with religious intolerance, Obama cautioned that nobody "should be profiled or put under a cloud of suspicion simply because of their faith."

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.