Afghan president Mohammed Ashraf Ghani told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday that the ISIS terror army has begun to infiltrate his country 'like a dangerous virus,' and warned his fellow Muslims not to be romanced by its 'anger and hatred.' Ghani said Afghanistan is the new 'frontline' for the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, which has been 'sending advance guards to southern and western Afghanistan to test for vulnerabilities.' So far, he told a joint meeting of Congress, 'Afghanistan's people have rejected the allure of violent Islam. But sooner or later extremism will come knocking at our door.' He urged people in 'Muslim majority countries' to challenge Islamist terrorism 'from within the religion.' 'Silence is not acceptable,' the Afghan leader declared. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . TERROR WARNING: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani addressed a joint meeting of Congress at the US Capitol on Wednesday, warning that ISIS is threatening to undo years of post-9/11 rebuilding in his country . HERO'S WELCOME: Ghani entered the House chamber to thunderous applause before thanking the US government and taxpayers for more than a decade of financial and military support . 'LAZY UNCLE JOE': Vice President Biden chuckled, and then grimaced, when Ghani unfortunately used his first name to represent an imaginary dependent family member (standing in for Afghanistan) who refuses to be self-sufficient . 'The heart of the issue remains who is entitled to speak for Islam,' Ghani told a packed House chamber at the U.S. Capitol. 'Leaders, intellectuals, and those many millions of Muslims who believe that Islam is a religion of tolerance and virtue must find their voice.' Ghani insisted that 'Islam is a religion of peace,' and praised the Muslim world for its 'gloriously tolerant and inquisitive past.' His speech came against the backdrop of a spreading Islamist radicalism that has helped ISIS – which he referred to by its native name 'Daesh' – conquer large swaths of Iraqi and Syrian teritory by leveraging a fundamentalist brand of Islam as a pretext for military might. That extremism, Ghani warned, 'is becoming a system – one that, like a dangerous virus, is constantly mutating, becoming more lethal, very media savvy, well financed, and thriving on state weakness and an overall lack of regional coordination.' At the same time he thanked American taxpayers for supporting his country's post-9/11 resurgence and urged Congress to keep the money flowing – to a point. 'I have no doubt that, provided that they continue to receive equipment and training, our armed forces will stand firm against any efforts by outside extremists to build a base inside our territory,' he said. But 'we don't want your charity,' he insisted. 'We have no more interest in perpetuating a childish dependence than you have in being saddled with a poor family member who lacks the energy and drive to go out and find a job.' And in a throwaway line that wasn't in the prepared text that circulated among lawmakers Wednesday morning, he chuckled: 'We're not going to be the lazy Uncle Joe.' Vice President Joe Biden, seated behind him, could be heard on C-SPAN's camera feed chuckling twice as loudly. Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday that the U.S. has 'a vested interest in the ability of Afghans to secure and stabilize their country after the investments of the American people and the extraordinary sacrifices of our service members.' Ghani, Corker added, is now responsible for 'mobilizing a reliable, effective security force in a region where terrorism remains a major threat.' From the podium in the House chamber, the Afghan leader agreed. 'Properly supported, Afghanistan is uniquely positioned to block the spread of extremism,' he claimed. 'We have none of the historical inferiority complexes that fuel resentment against western domination. After all, we defeated most of the empires.' TROOP DRAWDOWN? President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he wouldn't order the quick military withdrawal he was expected to institute in the wake of the official end of American combat in Afghanistan at the end of 2014 . THANK YOU: Ghani thanked Americans over and over for supporting and stabilizing his country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, perpetrated by al-Qaeda terrorists who had taken refuge there . 'With the bitter exception of the aberrant Taliban regime, Afghan Islam has traditionally been inclusive and reflective, not violent and angry,' he said. 'And after thirty-six years of conflict our people are well-vaccinated against the seduction of ideologically based conflicts.' In a more dramatic departure from his prepared remarks, Ghani paused to express his hope that Afghanistan would someday become 'ordinary.' 'Our people, our children, desperately want to be normal,' he said. 'Ordinary is what has escaped us, and we'd really like to be leading ordinary lives: to go to school and come back, to shop without being blown up, to play volleyball without being attacked.' 'So many children have I held in my arms who have been mutilated,' Ghani continued. 'That must not be permitted! It cannot be permitted! It will not be permitted!' Ghani faces the challenge of establishing Afghanistan's military and civil self-sufficiency as President Barack Obama supervises a slowed-down but inevitable drawdown of the U.S. military forces that have kept the country from falling apart since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. That deployment, initially ordered by President George W. Bush to punish and contain the al-Qaeda network that brought down the World Trade Center from its Afghan bases of operations, cost 2,315 servicemen and women their lives and brought another 20,000 home with wounds and other injuries. 'We owe a profound debt to the soldiers who have lost limbs to buried bombs, to the brave veterans, and to the families who tragically lost their loved ones to the enemy’s cowardly acts of terror,' Ghani said Wednesday. And more than a decade later, he pledged, 'Afghanistan will be the graveyard of al-Qaeda and their foreign terrorist affiliates.' 'Never again will our country be a host to terrorists. Never again will we give extremists the sanctuary to plan their destructive plots.'
Mohammed Ashraf Ghani spoke to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday . Said the ISIS terror army is already testing his country's vulnerabilities in border regions . Key to defeating the terrorists, he said, is making it clear that they don't speak for all of Islam . Also thanked Obama for 'seamless handover' of military operations even as the US has slowed down its troop withdrawal .