Republican presidential candidate says peaceful practitioners should not take offense at his opinion on those ‘who want to destroy western civilization’

Jeb Bush, the potential Republican presidential candidate, said in an appearance in Washington on Thursday afternoon that the religion of Islam had been “hijacked” by “barbarians” – and that peaceful practitioners of the religion should not be offended by his saying so.



Bush made the comments at a conservative conference during a one-on-one interview with the National Review Institute’s Rich Lowry.



Lowry asked: “Is Islam a religion of peace?”



Bush’s reply, in full, ran:



“I’m sure for some of the practitioners, but it’s been hijacked by people who have a [sic] ideology that wants to destroy western civilization, and they’re barbarians. And so that part, which is the part that we need to confront head-on, is clearly not a religion of peace.

“And I think it’s – you’re not offending the sensibilities of people that are peaceful in the adherence to their faith when you say what I just said.”

Bush went on to say that “for example”, the White House had botched its Egypt policy and that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate and former secretary of state, was “primarily responsible”.

Conservatives have criticized President Barack Obama for not explicitly referring to a “radical Islamic” terrorist threat – a threat that Republican candidates at this year’s conservative political action committee conference and elsewhere have, in turn, shown themselves eager to name.

The interview ended with a question about what books Bush was reading. He said he was a fan of Charles Murray (a taste he has declared elsewhere), the controversial co-author of The Bell Curve, which suggests a link between racial disparities on intelligence tests and genetics. But Bush said he did not remember what he was currently reading.

“Which book am I reading right now? Gosh, I don’t remember his name right now. It’s the one about the Chicago exposition,” Bush said. “I love that guy.”

With some help from the audience, he figured it out: The Devil and the White City by Erik Larson.