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Marco Rubio Knocks Hillary Clinton for Refusal to Say 'Radical Islam'

November 15, 2015

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) on Sunday took issue with Hillary Clinton's refusal to call the terrorists who attacked Paris representatives of radical Islam.

"I don't understand it. That would be like saying we weren't at war with Nazis because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi party but weren't violent themselves," Rubio said.

In Saturday's Democratic debate, Clinton was asked if she agreed with Rubio's statement that the Paris terrorists represented radical Islam. Clinton said she did not think that the U.S. was at war with a particular religion's extremists, but rather that it was at war with "violent extremism" in the abstract.

"We are at war with violent extremism. We are at war with people who use their religion for purposes of power and oppression," Clinton said.

Clinton said she did not want to "paint with too broad of a brush" for fear of offending moderate Muslims.

Rubio said that "of course" not all Muslims were extremists, but that the U.S. was at war with an interpretation of Islam that was gaining strength.

"We are at war with radical Islam. With an interpretation of Islam by a significant number of people around the world that they believe now justifies them killing people who don't agree with their ideology," Rubio said. "This is a clash of civilizations."

The Islamic State has taken credit for the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 people in seven different locations and wounded over 300. The attacks were the deadliest on French soil since the German occupation during World War II.