Obama: 'We Are Not At War With Islam'

The US is "not at war with Islam - we are at war with people who have perverted Islam", Barack Obama has insisted.

Speaking at an international conference on combating violent extremism, the US President said he did not want to give groups like Islamic State religious legitimacy.

"Of course the terrorists do not speak for over a billion Muslims who reject their hateful ideology.

"They no more represent Islam than any madman who kills innocents in the name of God represents Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism.

"No religion is responsible for terrorism, people are responsible for violence and terrorism."

Mr Obama praised Muslim clerics and scholars around the world who have spoken out against the violent tactics used by IS and other groups.

But he said "their job is made harder by a broader narrative that does exist in many Muslim communities around the world that suggests the West is at odds with Islam in some fashion".

"So just as leaders like myself reject the notion that terrorists like Isil (IS) genuinely represent Islam, Muslim leaders need to do more to discredit the notion that our nations are determined to suppress Islam, that there is an inherent clash of civilisations.

"Everybody has to speak up very clearly that, no matter what the grievance, violence against innocents doesn't defend Islam or Muslims, it damages Islam and Muslims."

Home Secretary Theresa May was among those attending the conference which comes days after two people were killed by a suspected Islamist extremist in the Danish capital Copenhagen, and the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by IS militants in Libya.

She spoke of the changing threat faced by countries and their security services.

"There's no longer just the threat from groups that are carefully plotting attacks, but it's possible for lone individuals to be radicalised, perhaps at home, and to go out and commit some atrocity in the street."