21 May 2017•Update: 22 May 2017
By Ilker Girit
ISTANBUL
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Muslim-majority countries to "honestly" confront extremist ideologies and terrorist groups.
Speaking at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, Trump urged Muslim leaders to drive extremists "out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your community. Drive them out of your holy land".
"Every nation has an absolute duty to ensure that terrorists find no quarter on their soil," he stated.
Trump called the fight against extremists a battle "between good and evil," adding that it "is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations".
"Terrorists do not worship God. They worship death," he stated.
"There can be no coexistence with this violence. [...] Every time a terrorist murders an innocent person, and falsely invokes the name of God, it should be an insult to every person of faith," Trump added.
The president also denounced Iran in his speech, saying that its aggression in the Middle East had helped Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime commit "unspeakable crimes."
He called Iran "the spearhead of global terrorism" and said its citizens were the "longest-suffering victims" of their leaders' pursuit of conflict and terror.
"From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds arms, and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region. For decades Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror," he stated.
"It is a regime that is responsible for so much instability in that region," he added.
On Syria, Trump called on the leaders to work together to end the humanitarian crisis in the country "as quickly as possible," decrying the Assad regime's chemical attack last month that killed some 100 civilians and injured 500.
Speech unlikely to 'turn the tables'
Trump's address on Sunday was "a much more nuanced speech than he has ever given relating to Muslims or Islam", Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) -- the largest Muslim advocacy group in North America -- told Anadolu Agency.
"But it doesn’t wipe out years of anti-Muslim bigotry that he has promoted in his speeches, in his appointments, and in his policies," Hooper said.
On whether the speech would be successful in improving the Trump administration's outreach with the Muslim world, Hooper said it would be limited in its influence because of how Trump did not even address his Muslim ban, as well as well-publicized plans for a Muslim registry and mosque surveillance in the U.S.
"At the minimum it won’t hurt the cause," Hooper said of the speech. "I don’t think it is just going to turn the tables with the Muslim world, but it is a step in the right direction that has to be followed up with concrete action and policies."
Regarding the reference in the speech to Islam as "one of the world's great faiths", Hooper said: "We had specifically called for him to make that statement, because one of his top advisors, Sebastian Gorka, had repeatedly refused to say that Donald Trump even regarded Islam as a faith let alone one of the great faiths."
Sunday’s summit -- the first of its kind -- was attended by Trump along with leaders and representatives of 55 Islamic countries.
Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday on his first presidential trip abroad since taking office.
On the first day of Trump’s visit, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia agreed to an arms deal worth almost $110 billion "to support Saudi Arabia's defense needs," according to the U.S. State Department.
*Canberk Yuksel contributed from New York.
