Why are conservatives obsessed with labeling terrorism as Islamic?

[bedstuy]

I think there is some legitimate issue here, but not vis-a-vis Obama.  The President is a diplomatic presence for the United States so he needs to be diplomatic. 

So, he takes great pains to distinguish Islamic terrorism from muslims and Islamic countries.  This makes sense both because it respects muslim people and it takes a propaganda victory away from terrorists.  They want to turn their fight into a polarizing battle between the West and Islam.  So, it makes sense to try to subvert that and win over moderates.  And, ultimately, it's not a huge deal, what matters is action and Obama has been more focused on killing terrorists than George W. Bush.

But, the greater societal issue is the framing of Islamic terrorism.  There are some leftists who think Al Qaeda is primarily motivated by Israel occupying the West Bank and "US Imperialism."  This is the narrative where the rest of the world purely reacts to America's misdeeds, they have no agency or ideology of their own.  So, it makes sense to label Al Qaeda or ISIS or Boko Haram as "Islamic terrorism" because that's more accurate than the Noam Chomsky-leftist narrative.