While radical Muslims accelerate their twisted campaign to kill, moderate Muslims are sitting on the sidelines and staying mum, former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie told "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"The difference is very clear between a radical Islam and moderate Islam," Higbie said Thursday on the
Newsmax TV program.
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"Radical Islam is the people who want to do harm and will actively do harm to anybody that's outside their faith and their radical ideology.
"A moderate Muslim is somebody who will sit by and let it happen without speaking out against it."
Higbie added that President Barack Obama’s refusal to name radical Islam when he speaks about atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) just makes things worse.
Special: ISIS: Everything you need to know about the rise of the militant group — Click Here
"We are, in fact, at war with radical Islam … These folks are probably sitting there in their caves beating their heads against the wall because they're like, I don't know how much clearer we can make it to say that we are Islam and we are radical Islam. The president will not admit it," he said.
"These people are screaming loud and clear, we are radical Islam, we are the Islamic State … You can't defeat an enemy you refuse to identify."
Higbee — author of
"Battle on the Home Front: A Patriot's Mission to Save the American Dream," published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform — scoffed at State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf’s statement that jobs programs could help stop terrorism.
"This notion that poor economic circumstances leads to radical terrorism, the low income class in America would be pretty upset about that," he said.
"We've spent 13 years in nation building over there and guess what? It didn't work. You can't even put a faithful government with these people.
"You want to start giving them jobs? … They're going to do the same thing they did with their government and kill them."
Higbie said the United States needs to put boots on the ground in the Middle East.
"These airstrikes are minimally effective without people on the ground executing the proper intelligence to get better targets. That's the bottom line," he said, adding the threat from ISIS is growing by leaps and bounds.
"They'll wind up on the shores everywhere if we don't do something about it," Higbie said.
Special: ISIS: Everything you need to know about the rise of the militant group — Click Here