Jeb Bush, the potential Republican presidential candidate, said in an appearance in Washington on Thursday afternoon that the religion of Islam had been “hijacked” by “barbarians” – and that peaceful practitioners of the religion should not be offended by his saying so.
Bush made the comments at a conservative conference during a one-on-one interview with the National Review Institute’s Rich Lowry.
Lowry asked: “Is Islam a religion of peace?”
Bush’s reply, in full, ran:
“I’m sure for some of the practitioners, but it’s been hijacked by people who have a [sic] ideology that wants to destroy western civilization, and they’re barbarians. And so that part, which is the part that we need to confront head-on, is clearly not a religion of peace.
“And I think it’s – you’re not offending the sensibilities of people that are peaceful in the adherence to their faith when you say what I just said.” » | Tom McCarthy in New York | Thursday, April 30, 2015
