President Obama just made a short televised speech on religious extremism.

In it, he pointed out that groups such as ISIL (or ISIS as just about everyone but President Obama calls it), al Qaeda, etc. call themselves Islamic.  He is right about that.

He also pointed out that these groups do not define Islam; there are a great many Islamic people who do not subscribe to the murdering barbarism of these groups.  He is right about that too.

But when he claims that these groups pervert the religion of Islam, he is not right.  Those groups may be perverse to us, but they are more than just some off-the-rails nutjobs, alien from true Islam. There are enough of them, and enough adherents, for them to represent, thus be defined as, a branch of Islam.

And he is wrong to ignore the extremism of Islam as it is practiced in many entire Islamic countries and regions within more diverse Islamic countries.

Click here to read a rundown of individual Islamic countries to see how strictly shari\’a law is enforced.  You\’ll find plenty of it, and plenty of what we would call extremism within it.

Then click here and find out that, in 5 Muslim countries, amputation is a legal punishment, in 9 Muslim countries you can legally be stoned to death and in 13 Muslim countries you can be executed for rejecting the Islamic faith.

The bottom line?  Islam is an umbrella under which there is considerable diversity of practice.  And extreme – or, if you will, radical – Islam is a significant part of what is under that umbrella.

All the dancing and wordsmithing in the world will not change that, Mr. President.  It is long past time we deal with things as they are, not as you wish and will them to be.