United front against Islamic terrorism:Trump

US President Donald Trump delivered a forceful address here summoning the Muslim world to confront “the crisis of Islamic extremism” as he seeks to present a united front against global terrorism.

Speaking from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and home to several of the religion’s holiest sites, Trump implored dozens of Muslim nations to join the United States against the killing of innocent people in the name of religion and the failure to take a firm and united stand.

“This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilizations,” Trump said. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion – people that want to protect life and want to protect their religion. This is a battle between good and evil.”

Trump established common cause with his Saudi hosts by singling out Iran as funding terrorists and promoting a “craven ideology,” and he called on the Muslim world to help isolate Iran.

In the run-up to Trump’s visit, there was considerable speculation about whether he would utter the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” in his speech, the centerpiece of his Saudi trip.

On the campaign trail, Trump loudly criticized President Barack Obama for refusing to describe the terrorism threat in those terms. But some of Trump’s top aides, including national security adviser H.R. McMaster, have been urging the president to soften his language, and many Muslim leaders consider broad denunciations of their faith insulting.

In his Riyadh address, Trump decided to use a substitute phrase: “Islamist extremism.” But he slightly veered off the prepared excerpts released earlier by the White House, saying “Islamic” instead of “Islamist” on several occasions.

Describing the fight against terrorism, Trump spoke of “honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds.”