Senator Marco Rubio said radical Islamic movements represent an expansive and ongoing threat to the United States and its allies, warning that their objectives extend far beyond regional control and include direct hostility toward the West and the American homeland.
Rubio made the remarks while outlining what he described as the ideological and strategic goals of radical Islamic movements, arguing that history has repeatedly shown these groups are not content with limited territorial ambitions.
“Ultimately, all radical Islamic movements in the world identify the West writ large, but the United States in particular, as the greatest evil on the earth,” Rubio said.
“And every chance to have the notion that somehow radical Islam would be comfortable with simply controlling some province in Iraq or Syria is just not borne out by history.”
According to Rubio, the ideology driving these movements is inherently expansionist and revolutionary in nature, seeking power over people, governments, and cultures across the globe.
“Radical Islam has shown that their desire is not simply to occupy one part of the world and be happy with their own little caliphate,” he said.
“They want to expand. It is revolutionary in its nature. It seeks to expand and control more territories and more people.”
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Rubio said that ambition includes explicit designs against Western nations, particularly the United States and Europe, and is carried out through both terrorism and state-level actions.
“And radical Islam has designs openly on the west, on the United States, on Europe,” Rubio said.
“We’ve seen that progress there as well, and they are prepared to conduct acts of terrorism.”
He also pointed to Iran as an example of how radical Islamic ideology can operate at the nation-state level, using a range of tactics to advance influence and control.
“In the case of Iran nation state, actions, assassinations, murderers, you name it, whatever it takes for them to gain their influence and ultimately their domination of different cultures and societies,” Rubio said.
Rubio described the threat as immediate and severe, particularly for the United States, which he said remains the primary target of radical Islamic hostility.
“That’s a clear and imminent threat to the world and to the broader West, but especially to the United States, who they identify as the Chief, chief source of evil on the planet,” he said.
He also explained why radical Islamic movements target U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.
“The reason why they hate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the leadership of the UAE of Bahrain, is because they have allowed the United States to partner with them,” Rubio said.
“That is why they hate them. They consider them infidels for it.”
Rubio said Israel and any nation influenced by the United States are similarly viewed as enemies.
“They hate Israel, but they also hate America, and they hate anywhere in the world that we have influenced,” he said.
“They seek to attack it, including here in the homeland.”
Turning to domestic security concerns, Rubio said radical Islamic ideology has inspired some of the deadliest terror attacks carried out inside the United States.
“If you look at the domestic terrorists at the attacks that happened here domestically, the overwhelming majority of them have been inspired by radical Islamic viewpoints,” Rubio said.
He cited specific examples to drive home his point.
“That includes the shooting in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that includes the Saudi pilot in Pensacola, my home state, two attacks,” Rubio said.
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