Rep. Loretta Sanchez says that "anywhere between 5 and 20 percent" of Muslims are "willing to use" terrorism to establish a worldwide caliphate.
"Certainly, we know that there is a small group, and we don’t know how big that is — it can be anywhere between 5 and 20 percent, from the people that I speak to — that Islam is their religion," the California Democrat told Larry King Wednesday in an interview on his
"Politicking" show on the Ora digital TV network.
Sanchez, 55, a seven-term congresswoman who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, was discussing the threat of the Islamic State and President Barack Obama's national speech Sunday in response to the shooting attacks in San Bernardino.
She said these extremist Muslims have "a desire for a caliphate and to institute that in any way possible, and in particular go after what they consider 'Western norms' — our way of life.
"They are not content enough to have their way of looking at the world," she added. "They want to put their way on everybody in the world."
She told King that the percentage of Muslims willing to use violence varies "depending on who you talk to" — adding that "certainly" there are Muslims who are "willing to go to extremes.
"They are willing to use and they do use terrorism, and it is in the name a very wrong way of looking at Islam," Sanchez said.
The United States "must" destroy those radical Muslim who would resort to violence to meet their objectives, she told King.
"It’s no longer a matter of containing, it is a matter of eliminating that threat to America, to Americans and to the peace-loving world."
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