Obama defines his legacy to America in his final year
US president condemns his critics’ anti-Muslim rhetoric
PRESIDENT Barack Obama knocked Republican presidential candidates for anti-Muslim rhetoric and accused critics on Tuesday of playing into the hands of Islamic State in a speech aimed at setting an optimistic tone for his last year in office.
Obama, delivering his last State of the Union speech to Congress before leaving office next year, said it was fiction to declare the US was in economic decline or getting weaker on the international stage.
In a direct slap at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Obama said insulting Muslims hurt the US and “betrayed” its identity.
“When politicians insult Muslims… that doesn’t make us safer,” he said, drawing applause from the crowd in the House of Representatives chamber. “It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals.”
Businessman Trump is leading the Republican field in the race for the November 8 election to replace Obama.
Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US and a wall on the US border with Mexico to stop the flow of illegal immi- grants, ideas Obama strongly opposes.
The Democratic president said critics played into Islamic State’s hands by comparing the fight against the militant group to World War III, even as he acknowledged that the group and al-Qaeda posed a direct threat to the American people.
“Masses of fighters on the back of pick-up trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages, they pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence,” Obama said.
The remarks were a repudiation of criticism of his strategy against Islamic State, which Republicans have called insufficient.
Obama’s address comes as 10 sailors aboard two US Navy boats were taken into Iranian custody. Iran told the US the crew members would be “promptly” returned, US officials said. The event gave Republicans further fodder to criticise Obama’s nuclear deal with Tehran.
Obama did not address the issue in his speech. Iran later said it would release the sailors, saying they had entered Iranian waters inadvertently.
The address was one of Obama’s few remaining chances to capture the attention of millions of Americans before November’s election of a new president, who will take office next January.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who delivered the Republican Party’s response to Obama’s address, knocked his record on fiscal and foreign policy while delivering a not-so-subtle jab at Republican presidential candidates such as Trump.
“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country,” she said.
Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Obama stuck to themes he hopes will define his legacy.
He emphasised areas where compromise was possible with Republicans in Congress.