WATCH: Tulsi Gabbard says ‘you see the final expression of cancel culture in Islamic terrorist groups’

"You see the final expression of cancel culture in Islamist terrorist groups," Gabbard said, "like ISIS and Al Qaeda who basically go and behead those who… they deem to be infidels or heretics in order to silence them in order to protect others from being misled by those heretical ideas and in the eyes of an ISIS or Al Qaeda."

"And so when we look at cancel culture here at home, we see those efforts to cancel or silence those that … they don't want the people to hear from, those who may offer a different idea than the one that those in power want people to see or to hear, or to be exposed to," she said. "And so this is, when we look at the foundations of our democracy, this is the danger of where this path leads us. Unless we as individuals stand up against it."

Gabbard said that "When you look at the foundation of our democracy, it is based on this ideal, this principle of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom for every single one of us to be able to share our ideas and debate them, to argue them, to agree or to disagree, to pick and choose in this marketplace of ideas, those that we deem to be right or wrong to be superior or inferior and even for those ideas that may be misleading or dangerous, that in this free marketplace, we have the right to then defeat those ideas with with superior ones."

"Cancel culture is the opposite of this, it is exactly the opposite of this foundational principle of our democracy," Gabbard said. "It means that in a cancel culture, you have some people who believe that they are special, that they are superior, that they have the power to be able to shut down those who have ideas and views that are different, who may follow a path that they deem to be the wrong path and will therefore say, 'No, we're going to place obstacles in front of you, we're going to silence certain voices, so that only those who agree with us and the path that we deem to be right as the one that is before you to choose.'"

She intoned a belief in God as a way to understand that using force to instill ideological hegemony is not a good tactic, saying "And the issue with this, there's a few issues with it, the main issue with this is when you look at our rights and freedoms, and our ability to debate them, and respectfully come out the other end agreeing or disagreeing, as you and I have over the years, it's based on the fact that we are all children of God."