DCI Pompeo After Boston Bombing: 'Silence Has Made These Islamic Leaders Across America Potentially Complicit'

(CNSNews.com) -- Mike Pompeo, the newly confirmed CIA director in the Trump administration, said the silence of Islamic leaders in the United States following the 2013 radical Islamic terrorist bombing in Boston made them "potentially complicit in these acts."

The bombing at the Boston Marathon occurred on April 15, 2013. Three people were killed, hundreds were injured, and 16 people lost limbs. As a member of the House of Representatives then, on June 11, 2013, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) delivered remarks on the House floor. 

"Mr. Speaker, it's been just under 2 months since the attacks in Boston, and in those intervening weeks, the silence of Muslim leaders has been deafening," said Pompeo.

"When the most devastating terrorist attacks on America in the last 20 years come overwhelmingly from people of a single faith, and are performed in the name of that faith, a special obligation falls on those that are the leaders of that faith," he said.  "Instead of responding, silence has made these Islamic leaders across America potentially complicit in these acts and, more importantly still, in those that may well follow."

"If a religion claims to be one of peace, Mr. Speaker, its leaders must reject violence that is perpetrated in its name," said Pompeo, a graduate of the West Point Military Academy. [T]here is never any justification for terrorism. No political goal legitimizes terrorism. Terrorism is never excusable as resistance. Imams must state unequivocally that terrorists' actions, killing and maiming, sully Islam."

Further, he said, "moderate imams must strive to ensure that no Muslim finds solace for terrorism in the Koran. They must cite the Koran as evidence that the murder of innocents is not permitted by good, believing Muslims, and must immediately refute all claims to the contrary."

"Finally, Muslim leaders must say that there is no room for militant Islamism in the religion of peace," said Pompeo. "These statements must be made publicly, frequently and in the mosques, yes, in the mosques and in the madrassas, where many learn their Islamic religion."

"You know, we have to call evil by its name in order to stamp it out," said the future CIA director.  "Downplaying atrocities and rampages ensures more of them."

"Every Muslim leader must unequivocally proclaim that terror committed in the name of Islam violates the core tenets of the Prophet Mohammed, and they must do so repeatedly, period," he said. 

Pompeo continued, "the silence in the face of extremism coming from the best-funded Islamic advocacy organizations and many mosques across America is absolutely deafening. It casts doubt upon the commitment to peace by adherents of the Muslim faith. This is utterly unacceptable, it is dangerous, it must end."

Mike Pompeo assumed the directorship of the CIA on Monday, Jan. 23. Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point and went on to earn a law degree at Harvard Law School. Pompeo served as a cavalry officer in Europe and he also served in the Gulf War. He is married to Susan Pompeo and they have one child.