Pastor weighs in on President Obama's perceived bias in favor of Muslims

A Dallas pastor gave his insight into what has been observed as President Barack Obama's leanings toward Islam.

On Fox Business Network's "Varney & Co." program, host Stuart Varney compared video clips showing Obama's views on Islam with those showing his "somewhat harsh views on Christianity," and the TV anchor concluded that the president is "tilted towards Islam."

"Well, you see this over and over again, Stuart," replied Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas. "After a major terrorist attack, the president assumes his favorite role of defender-in-chief of Islam rather than commander-in-chief."

In his speech on June 14 following the Orlando shooting, which left 49 people dead, the president mentioned how he and his administration have been criticized for not using the term "radical Islam." He argued that using the label does not accomplish or change anything, and he reasoned that it would not serve a military strategy nor would it make the Islamic State terror group less committed to killing Americans.

"So there's no magic to the phrase 'radical Islam,'" Obama said. " It's a political talking point; it's not a strategy. And the reason I am careful about how I describe this threat has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with actually defeating extremism."

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When Varney asked the pastor if he "had any sympathy" for Obama's point of view that connecting Islam with terrorism would hinder the effort in curtailing terrorist attacks in the United States, he replied in the negative. Jeffress explained that one cannot defeat an enemy that he is not willing to identify. While he acknowledged that most Muslims are peace-loving people, there is still a good number that have embraced radical Islam.

"The most conservative estimate is that only 5 percent of Muslims have embraced radical Islam, but out of 1.5 billion Muslims, that's 75 million Muslim who embrace radical Islam. We better take note of that," he said. "The fact is you do not give the same surveillance to an 89-year-old Episcopalian grandmother as you do a 25-year-old male Muslim who's emigrated from Afghanistan. We need to be smart about this."

The host then asked his guest if he is looking for a "more muscular defense" of the Christian faith, to which Jeffress said that he is.

"If this had been a conservative Christian who had committed this horrendous act, that is all Barack Obama would be talking about -- about how Christians need to rethink their faith and reform their views, but he is silent about that when it comes to radical Islam," he said.