President Barack Obama still won't call radicals Islamists because he says he doesn't want to 'validate' their claims that they're speaking for the Muslim religion.

Confronted Wednesday by Gold Star mother Tina Houchins, whose 19-year-old son died in Iraq before he took office, Obama told her the issue 'has been sort of manufactured.'

'I've said repeatedly that where we see terrorist organizations like al Qaeda or ISIL, they have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse, for basically barbarism and death,' he told the woman, questioning him at a townhall put on by CNN.

Then, making an obvious reference to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Obama lambasted 'people aspiring...to become president' talking 'about Muslim-Americans here and the notion that somehow we'd start having religious tests.'

'You were clearly talking about the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, just then,' said moderator Jake Tapper, interrupting him.

A defiant Obama replied, 'No, I wasn't.'

Confronted Wednesday by Gold Star mother Tina Houchins whose 19-year-old son died in Iraq before he took office Obama told her the controversy over his refusal to say radical Islamic terrorism 'has been sort of manufactured'

Making an obvious reference to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Obama lambasted 'people aspiring...to become president' talking 'about Muslim-Americans here and the notion that somehow we'd start having religious tests'

'You were clearly talking about the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, just then,' said moderator Jake Tapper, interrupting him. A defiant Obama replied, 'No, I wasn't'

Obama insisted that he wasn't talking about Trump - the only candidate still in the race who has proposed a religious test for entry into the country - because that position is 'not unique to the Republican nominee.'

'And, again...I'm trying to be careful. We're on a military base,' he said. 'I don't want to insert partisan politics into this.'

Houchins' son, Aaron Goteer, was killed in Baghdad in 2007.

She said to Obama at the townhall, 'As a Gold Star mother, my son gave his life for acts of terrorism. Do you still believe that the acts of terrorism are done for the self-proclaimed Islamic religious motive? And if you do, why do you still refuse to use the term racially, I'm sorry, Islamic terrorist?'

The president thanked Houchins' son for his service and proceeded to explain why he doesn't refer to ISIS fighters as radical Islamic terrorists.

Obama said he's been cautious with his language because he doesn't want to 'lump these murderers into the billion Muslims that exist around the world, including in this country, who are peaceful.'

'Do I think that if somebody uses the phrase Islamic terrorism that it's a huge deal? No,' he claimed. 'There's no doubt that these folks think that, and claim that, they're speaking for Islam. But I don't want to validate what they do.'

He told Houchins, 'The way it's heard, the way it's received by our friends and allies around the world is that somehow Islam is terroristic. And that then makes them feel as if they're under attack.'

President Barack Obama jumps up the stairs to take the stage to speak to members of the military community, Wednesday, at Fort Lee in Virginia. He also participated in a CNN townhall there

The United States will send about 600 extra troops to Iraq to train local forces for an offensive on the Islamic State group stronghold of Mosul, the Defense Department also said Wednesday

Obama said he'd be offended if his religion, Christianity, was being demonized in the same way.

If terrorists were 'killing and blowing people up and said we're on the vanguard of Christianity, well, I'm not, as a Christian, I'm not going to let them claim my religion and say you're killing for Christ.'

'I would say that's ridiculous. That's not what my religion stands for.'

The president argued that it's fine to 'call these folks what they are, which is killers and terrorists - and that's what we've been trying to do.'

He said he won't allow them to speak for Islam, though, 'because they don't,' and he won't 'make Muslims who are well-meaning and our natural allies on this fight' feel ostracized.