Erdogan: 'Daesh has nothing to do with Islam'

ISTANBUL

Islam has “nothing to do” with the terrorist group Daesh, which Turkey deemed responsible for the deadly terror attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on Tuesday, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“They say they do such a thing in the name of Islam. Islam has nothing to do with them, their place is hell,” Erdogan said at an opening of a mosque in Istanbul on Friday.

“If anyone killed a person, it would be as if he killed the whole of mankind,” Erdogan said, quoting the holy Quran.

“These people were innocent, children, women, elderly... they're traveling, they do know nothing, and they faced death. You [Daesh] have no right,” he said.

On Tuesday, the terror attack at Istanbul Ataturk Airport claimed 44 people's lives, including 19 foreign citizens, and injured more than 230 others.