Talk show host Joe Scarborough said he doesn't understand why the White House won't use the term "Islamic extremism" to refer to acts of violent terrorism by radical Muslims.
"Let me ask the question that millions and millions of Americans are asking. What's with the White House? Why won't they call Islamic extremism Islamic extremism?" Scarborough asked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday.
"This is just plain stupid on the White House's part. I think you have to call the threat what it is."
Story continues below video.
By comparison, Scarborough questioned whether former President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II should have said "Nazism is not extreme German nationalism," when that's what it was.
While a "very small, small percentage of Muslim extremists go out and kill," he said there was a "cultural divide" among Muslim countries and Western nations. "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski said that divide was evident in a
Pew poll that showed people in many Muslim nations viewed stoning as a proper punishment for adultery.
"When it comes to stoning as punishment, more than eight in 10 Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan want Islamic law as their country's official law, say adulterers should be stoned. Nearly as many say the same in the Palestinian territories. And, in Egypt, it's 81 percent," Brzezinski said.
She also said the report showed "taking the life of those who abandon Islam" was widely supported in Egypt and Jordan.
Scarborough anticipated similar terminology would be used if Christians were "going out blowing away 3,000 people in the name of Jesus and carrying around crosses."
"I'm saying, there are Christians, there are extreme Christians, not extreme Christians that go out and kill 3,000 people on 9/11. There are Muslims. There are extreme Muslims. I don't quite understand why this is even a debate inside the White House," he said.
Scarborough said that it would benefit moderate Muslims to "point out that these are Muslim extremists, instead of Muslims."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.