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Robert Spencer in FrontPage: The McMaster Pick: Score One for the Swamp?

Feb 23, 2017 11:39 am By Robert Spencer

NSA pick McMaster told the National Defense University that “the Islamic State is not Islamic.” My latest in FrontPage:

President Trump has confirmed that retired Lt. General H.R. McMaster is his new choice to be his National Security Adviser. There have been indications that the Republican establishment has been trying to co-opt Trump and keep him from effecting the sweeping reform that he has promised, and this appointment could indicate that at least for the moment, these forces have gained the upper hand.

A source that has asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals has informed me that he was present in August 2014 when McMaster was the featured speaker for the President’s Lecture Series at National Defense University in Washington, D.C. McMaster addressed an assembly of all the students in the colleges of the university, including the National War College, the College of International Security Affairs (CISA), the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (formerly the Industrial College of the Armed Forces), and the others.

No transcript or video is publicly available, but there was a large crowd, and multiple witnesses.

In his address, McMaster said flatly: “The Islamic State is not Islamic.”

You can see McMaster say this beginning at the four-minute mark:

“We are engaged today, as General George C. Marshall’s generation was engaged, against enemies who pose a great threat to all civilized peoples. As our World War II generation defeated Nazi Fascism and Japanese imperialism, and as later generations defeated Communist totalitarianism, we will defeat today’s enemies, including terrorist organizations like Daesh, who cynically use a perverted interpretation of religion to incite hatred and justify horrific cruelty against innocents.” — Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, speech to Virginia Military Institute, Center for Leadership and Excellence, November 21, 2016

Then in this video from May 2016, McMaster says this same thing. At 14:43, McMaster refers to “groups like ISIL, who use this irreligious ideology, this perverted interpretation of religion to justify violence. They depend on ignorance, and the ability to recruit vulnerable segments of populations  to foment hatred, and then use that hatred to justify violence against innocents.”

This could be Barack Obama or John Kerry speaking.

Now, this was during the Obama regime, when that was the official policy of the U.S. government, but President Trump has repeatedly criticized his predecessor (and his 2016 election opponent) for not being willing to call the problem of jihad terror by its right name. Since he has become President, he has repeatedly reiterated his determination to eradicate “radical Islamic terrorism.”

If McMaster genuinely holds the view that the Islamic State is not Islamic, then he is a disastrous pick as National Security Adviser, and will continue the willful ignorance of the Obama administration, hamstringing efforts to understand, and counter effectively, the motives and goals of the enemy.

The Obama team didn’t just deny that the Islamic State was Islamic. From 2011 on, it has been official Obama administration policy to deny any connection between Islam and terrorism. This came as a result of an October 19, 2011 letter from Farhana Khera of Muslim Advocates to John Brennan, who was then the Assistant to the President on National Security for Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism, and later, of course, served in the Obama administration as head of the CIA.

The letter was signed not just by Khera, but by the leaders of virtually all the significant Islamic groups in the United States: 57 Muslim, Arab, and South Asian organizations, many with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Islamic Relief USA; and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

The letter denounced what it characterized as U.S. government agencies’ “use of biased, false and highly offensive training materials about Muslims and Islam.” Despite the factual accuracy of the material about which they were complaining, the Muslim groups demanded that the task force “purge all federal government training materials of biased materials”; “implement a mandatory re-training program for FBI agents, U.S. Army officers, and all federal, state and local law enforcement who have been subjected to biased training”; and more—to ensure that all that law enforcement officials would learn about Islam and jihad would be what the signatories wanted them to learn.

Numerous books and presentations that gave a perfectly accurate view of Islam and jihad were removed from coounterterror training. Today, even with Trump as President, this entrenched policy of the U.S. government remains, and ensures that all too many jihadists simply cannot be identified as risks, since the officials are bound as a matter of policy to ignore what in saner times would be taken as warning signs.

President Trump must reverse this. He has spoken often about the threat from “radical Islamic terrorism”; he must follow through and remove the prohibitions on allowing agents to study and understand the motivating ideology behind the jihad threat.

If McMaster was stating his conviction and not just the party line, this would represent a step backward in this effort, not the step forward that is so urgently needed. It would also represent a victory for the compromised McCain/Graham Republican establishment, which subscribes no less than Obama did to the “Islam is a religion of peace” line, and is trying to neutralize Trump and keep the swamp from being drained.

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Filed Under: Donald Trump, Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Jihad doctrine Tagged With: H. R. McMaster


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 11:51 am

    I find it hard to believe that there is a SINGLE military officer who fought Muslim insurgents who is uninformed about the JIHAD DOCTRINE! So, I disagree that McMaster is naïve.

    If McMaster denied that ISIS was Islamic, it was no doubt a part of intentional misinformation to trick ISIS and their allies.

    THERE’S NO DAM WAY OFFICERS FIGHTING IN ISLAMIC THEATERS could avoid learning the JIHAD DOCTRINE. They will learn JIHAD fast when the bullets start flying.

    • awake says

      Feb 23, 2017 at 12:56 pm

      I hope you are correct. Far too many establishment people have endorsed McMaster for my liking, even in light of the fact that his comments in 2014, and use of ISIL, obviously came straight from the playbook of Hussein.

    • Pastor C says

      Feb 23, 2017 at 1:13 pm

      I know. It’s almost incomprehensible to believe this guy was so sloppily vetted and now occupies one of the most strategic intelligence positions within our government; particularly during a time when our enemies have already infiltrated our borders and are poised to strike every ‘soft target’ within our homeland at a moment’s notice.

      Dr. Spencer doesn’t ‘make up’ the bad news. He, simply, provides the facts.

      “It is what it is” (as they say)…We need to wake up and get ready to defend our Republic!

  2. berserker says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 12:45 pm

    I also read that this gentleman is trying to have Bannon removed from the NSC. This would mean that two people, Flynn and Bannon, who had a clear understanding of the nature of Islam will have been removed within a month of the Trump administration.
    – The followers of Muhammad are happy. Allahu Snackbar!

    • mortimer says

      Feb 23, 2017 at 12:55 pm

      McMaster’s past comments are fishy. Changing the old guard may be tough, but eventually, Trump will get what he wants. You can’t always fire everyone immediately. It may be better to give some time.

  3. Angemon says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 1:35 pm

    If McMaster genuinely holds the view that the Islamic State is not Islamic

    Unfortunately, only time will tell.

  4. Pal says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 1:55 pm

    Islam is not islamic.
    Muslims are not islamic,
    Quran is not islamic.
    Caliphates are not islamic.
    Muhammad is not islamic.
    Muslim countries and conunities are not islamic.
    ….
    Then, could people like McMaster point at people, communities, beliefs, and say THESE ARE THE PRECISE islam??
    Which are they??

  5. Walter Sieruk says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 2:55 pm

    First, it should be known that Donald Trump has the wisdom to know that The way to defeat those cruel, vicious, malicious and murderous jihadist thugs who compose the brutal and deadly jihad entity ISIS is by the use of many very strong powers of militant might. That is hit them hard, hit hem long, keep on hitting them and don’t stop hitting them. Meaning take them down, put them down, keep them down and don’t let them rise up again. As Thomas Jefferson had, so well, stated “With every barbarous people…force is law. “Second, the jihadists of ISIS in their mad Islamic quest to establish a caliphate, with all the cruel, brutal and murdering violence that is part of it, will not respond the reason. For the Muslim fanatics who compose ISIS cannot understand logic, nor do they care about reason. Those jihadists of ISIS in their irrational unquestioning blind Islamic faith have and leave no room for reason. In this unreasoning blind Islamic drive the jihadist/Muslims who make up ISIS are a reminder of what Benjamin Franklin had printed in POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK. Which is “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”

  6. Sam says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 3:28 pm

    I believe there is enough people in Trumps circle who really understand Islam. So I am not worried, yet?

  7. JIMJFOX says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 3:30 pm

    BY which ‘logic’, the USA is NOT “American”

  8. Alicia Sinclair says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 3:55 pm

    Why am I not surprised.
    As soon as all the BBC Clinton suckups purr at the appointment of McMaster, you know that he`s a wrong un.
    Should have been John Bolton I guess.

  9. Steve Klein says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    Meanwhile over at far-left Politico. Lt. Gen. McCaster, according to (Brookings Institute) William McCants sees authoritative (‘fundamentalist’) Islam as a freind; not a foe.

    ‘McMaster Has the Islamophobes Worried. Good’.

    Trump’s new national security adviser can be a powerful counterweight to the baleful influence of Steve Bannon.

    By WILLIAM MCCANTS February 23, 2017

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/mcmaster-has-the-islamophobes-worried-good-214815

    When America’s most influential Islamophobes are upset, you know the president made a good choice. “Score one [for] the swamp,” whined Robert Spencer upon hearing the news that Donald Trump appointed Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to be his national security adviser. Spencer makes a living scaring Americans about the dangers of Muslim soccer moms. “John Bolton lost out to this guy?” sputtered his frequent partner in whine, Pamela Geller, who scoffed at the general for saying, “Every time you disrespect an Iraqi, you’re working for the enemy.”

    The Islamophobes are not wrong to sense that McMaster will be hostile to their worldview, according to those who know him best…… “He absolutely does not view Islam as the enemy,” said Pete Mansoor, who served with McMaster in Iraq…..

    • common sense says

      Feb 23, 2017 at 9:36 pm

      Yeah if Muslims are praying to a blank piece of paper 5 times a day then Islam would indeed not be the enemy. Muslims will never reform Islam by request.

    • carol says

      Feb 25, 2017 at 1:42 am

      @Steve Klein…a little off-topic but since you seem to take the term “Islamophobic” seriously you might find some updated thinking in this article:

      http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/04/10/thought-europes-muslims-gradually-blend-britains-diverse-landscape-known-better

  10. John spielman says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 6:59 pm

    Has McMaster sold his soul to Allah/Satan?

  11. common sense says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 9:49 pm

    An 8 year ideological/ political hangover? Trump will sniff that out eventually and repeatedly reminds us that he is our messenger.
    McMaster has to know he works for the people, yeah we who pay the taxes not jobless, leftist, anarchist dhimmi’s.

    I’ve seen people perform brilliantly after not showing much up front. Still very ambiguous.

  12. Ben Jordan says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 10:30 pm

    McMaster is a fine man and critical thinker…he gets it; he knows Islam is not a “peaceful religion” as do most military officers in my view…that said, in this country, the president makes US policy not the senior officers within the military…consequently, any senior military leaders who want to defeat Islamist extremism must make their case in a way acceptable to the political leadership or resign, or be passed over for promotion ultimately leaving the service…this is simply the way it is…does one quit or work within this imperfect system to effect the best outcome possible…McMaster led troops in combat with distinction and speaks truth to power…for years his book denigrating US military leadership in Vietnam constrained his career…this many years after the war…why? because powerful hierarchical institutions like the military have a very difficult time accepting criticism especially from one of their own.. .the fact is both Bush and Obama stated publicly their policy foundation regarding our ongoing conflict with Islamic extremism (Islam is a religion of peace and Islamist terror an aberration or co-opting of this otherwise “peaceful religion”) & we now have about 16 years of this self-deception…so don’t expect you will find many or perhaps any senior officers (who incidently the president selects) who have not been forced to work around this…Now are there peaceable Muslims? Most certainly…unfortunately, their faith is also a political system whereby in due course they will still seek to displace or undermine the Constitution replacing it with Sharia aka a form of state religion…this must not happen & this more than the ISIS Jihadism is the most pernicious threat…with ISIS and their ilk we know (even Obama knew) they needed to be eradicated…the far worse problem is “peaceful” Muslims using the very freedoms we have to agitate for and ultimately gain a Sharia foothold..Be that as it may McMaster is a honoable man & one of the best and brightest to emerge as a senior military leader..

  13. Wellington says

    Feb 23, 2017 at 10:41 pm

    Trump MAY have made this appointment to temporarily appease so-called Muslim allies like SA and Jordan as well as to subdue criticism of him by RINOS like McCain and Graham. Don’t know for sure. Hey, who does?

    But I do know Trump is capable of thinking and acting on different levels at the same time. Three dimensional international chess and all that, sacrificing a geopolitical pawn to eventually capture a bishop, knight or even a rook. And there is that other factor, that being that virtually no one is better at saying “you’re fired” after a trial run. I write all this because I cannot overlook that Trump pulled off just about the greatest political upset in American history, ranking right up there with Truman defeating Dewey in 1948, and so I am loath to underestimate what is going on in that fertile and, yes, often idiosyncratic,mind of his. .

  14. RAB says

    Feb 24, 2017 at 9:09 am

    What ingenious arguments to hide the truth about ISIS, i.e. Islamic State! How is appointing someone who refuses or cannot see that ISIS is purely Islamic a strategic move? If McMaster really believes that ISIS is a perversion of Islam and has nothing to do with the “true” religion of Islam he is a disastrous choice for National Security Adviser, however you look at it. Raymond Ibrahim probably hit it right when he said that Islam has had its reformation, and that reformation is, in fact, ISIS. This is obvious because the Islamic State has been very careful to point out that everything they do, however atrocious, is sanctioned and justified by the Koran and the Sunnah. Anyone who can’t see that is either totally ignorant of Islamic ideology or an Islamic apologist practicing taqiyya. I hope there is a third alternative.

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