Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard appeared at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference over the weekend, condemning increasing “Islamist ideology” as a threat to the United States.
Gabbard explained that there is a “threat to our freedom that is not often talked about enough,” noting that the threat posed by Islamist ideology is the “greatest near and long term threat to both our freedom and our security.”
“It is propagated by people who not only do not believe in freedom, their fundamental ideology is antithetical to the foundation that we find in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, which is that our Creator endowed upon us inalienable rights, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” she said, later adding that Islamist ideology, at the core, is “a political ideology that seeks to create a global caliphate that governs us here in America, threatening Western civilization, governance by Sharia law, governance by what they are calling their Islamic principles.”
“As we approach Christmas, right now in Germany they are canceling Christmas markets because of this threat. In places like Dearborn, Michigan, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Islamist clerics are openly pushing this Islamist ideology, trying to recruit and radicalize young people,” Gabbard further declared, noting that similar efforts are underway in Houston and in Patterson, New Jersey, which calls itself the “first Muslim city.”
“The bottom line is this. When we talk about the threat of Islamism, this political ideology, there is no such thing as individual freedom or liberty,” she stated, noting that Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said that Islam “is fundamentally incompatible with our nation’s foundation of freedom.” Gabbard declared that because freedom comes from “God and no one else,” Americans understand the “seriousness of this Islamist ideology threat, because it means they deny that God is the one who has bestowed this right to freedom in every one of us.”
