In his weekly address to the nation, President
Obama spoke of the U.S.’s continued efforts to defeat the Islamic State
in the wake of the Brussels attacks, but added that in doing so, we must
also be an example of freedom and tolerance.
"As we
move forward, we have to wield another weapon alongside our airstrikes,
our military, our counterterrorism work, and our diplomacy—and that’s
the power of our example,” he said.
The president then
made it clear that he has no plans to back off his pledge to allow
100,000 Iraqi and Syrian refugees to come to America, despite the fact
that a majority of Americans
oppose accepting refugees from the war-torn countries.
“Our
openness to refugees fleeing ISIL's violence; our determination to win
the battle against ISIL's hateful and violent propaganda — a distorted
view of Islam that aims to radicalize young Muslims to their cause,” are
integral to the fight, he said.
The nation’s most
important partners in this effort are American Muslims, he added. Thus,
he said, we have to “reject any attempt to stigmatize Muslim Americans.”
The
president was likely taking a shot at a proposal by GOP frontrunner
Donald Trump to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S., and
recent calls by Sen. Ted Cruz to
increase surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods.
Such
efforts, Obama implied, are “contrary to our character, our values, and
to our history as a nation built around the idea of religious freedom.”
See video 'Weekly Address - Defeating ISIL' here:
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2016/03/27/obama-reaffirms-plan-to-bring-more-refugees-to-us-n2139520