On the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Americans must distinguish between a “militant Islamist ideology” and “the Muslim faith practiced by over a billion people all around the globe,” Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) said in the weekly Republican radio address.

President Barack Obama also used the anniversary of the attacks as an opportunity to remember those lost and honor “those who died so that others might live.”

Kyl said that on 9/11, “Americans finally realized that the sporadic attacks that had occurred earlier were not isolated events — they were all part of a war that had been declared by leaders of militant Islamist groups and had to be confronted as such.”

He called for a continued fight against militant Islam: “A failure to appreciate what the enemy wants and how it intends to win would be fatal to our efforts to combat this ideology.”

“Some in our government have even refused to speak the name of our adversary lest they somehow offend,” Kyl said. “Yet, one of the first rules of war is to know your enemy, the better to confront him on your terms than his.”

Obama, in his weekly radio address, called on the nation to “renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act of terror and who continue to plot against us — for we will never waver in defense of this nation.”

But Obama also asked Americans to “renew the true spirit of that day. Not the human capacity for evil, but the human capacity for good.”

Sept. 11 is a National Day of Service and Remembrance, he said, because “by giving back to our communities, by serving people in need, we reaffirm our ideals — in defiance of those who would do us grave harm.”