No one should doubt Bush’s good intentions in describing Islam as a religion of peace. But by invoking Islamic scripture, and by weighing in on a debate that can only be settled by those who identify as Muslims themselves, he contributed to a confusion that persists today. The real problem with people who kill innocent people in the name of Islam is not that they’re incorrectly interpreting their faith. It’s that they are killing innocent people.

Why do the leaders of ISIS have to be insincere in their beliefs in order for us to reject their brutality?

Like Bush, President Obama has weighed in on matters that must ultimately be left up to Muslims. Take his remarks this Wednesday, when he said, quite rightly, that “we are not at war with Islam.” Not content to stop there, or to simply explain that we are at war with various apocalyptic death cults that have declared war on us, he added that “we are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”