Islamic State does not speak for you and ‘we are not at war
with Islam’, declares US president at counter-extremism summit
Muslims in the US and around the world have a responsibility
to fight the idea that terrorist groups like Islamic State speak for them,
Barack Obama has declared in his most direct remarks yet about any link between
Islam and violent extremism.
“We are not at war with Islam,” Obama said. “We are at war
with people who have perverted Islam.”
In the first of two speeches to a counter-extremism summit
in Washington, the president reiterated his determination to avoid letting the
agenda become characterised as a battle against Islam, saying this would be
playing into the hands of Isis and other terrorist groups.
“They propagate the notion that America, and the west
generally, is at war with Islam; that’s how they recruit, that’s how they try
to radicalise young people,” he said.
“Just as leaders like myself reject the notion that
terrorists like Isil genuinely represent Islam, Muslim leaders need to do more
to discredit the notion that our nations are determined to suppress Islam.”
For weeks the Obama administration has sidestepped the
question of whether deadly terror attacks in Paris and other western cities
amount to “Islamic extremism”, wary of offending a major world religion or
lending credibility to the “war on terror” waged by George Bush.
But as he hosted the summit at the White House, the
president said some in Muslim communities had bought into the notion that Islam
was incompatible with tolerance and modern life.
While putting the blame on Isis and similar groups — Obama
said the militants masqueraded as religious leaders but were really terrorists
— the president also appealed directly to prominent Muslims to do more to
distance themselves from brutal ideologies, calling it the duty of all to
“speak up very clearly” in opposition to violence against innocent people.
Obama acknowledged it was a touchy subject but insisted it
was critical to tackle the issue “head-on”.
“We can’t shy away from these discussions,” he said. “And
too often folks are understandably sensitive about addressing some of these
root issues, but we have to talk about them honestly and clearly.”
The president differentiated militant groups from the
“billion Muslims who reject their ideology”. Isis was killing far more Muslims
than non-Muslims, he said, and called for the world community to elevate the
voices of those who “saw the truth” after being radicalised temporarily.
Obama acknowledged many Muslims in the US had a suspicion of
government and police and felt they were unfairly targeted – confounding
efforts to strengthen co-operation between law enforcement and Muslim
communities. He praised Muslims who have served the US and other capacities for
generations.
“Of course that’s the story extremists and terrorists don’t
want the world to know: Muslims succeeding and thriving in America,” Obama
said. “Because when that truth is known it exposes their propaganda as the lie
that it is.”
Obama has long tried to shift his administration’s terror
rhetoric away from what he saw as the hyperbolic terminology used by his
predecessor, George Bush, particularly Bush’s declaration in the aftermath of
the 9/11 attacks that the US was engaged in a “war on terror”.
On Wednesday Obama said: “If we’re going to prevent people
from being susceptible to the false promises of extremism, then the international
community has to offer something better and the United States intends to do its
part.”
Issuing such a direct challenge to Muslims to disown the
ideology of extremist groups marked a clear departure from the restrained,
cautious language Obama and his aides have used to describe the situation in
the past.
In the days after last month’s shootings at a satirical
French newspaper that had caricatured the prophet Muhammad, Obama avoided
calling the attack an example of “Islamic extremism” and instead opted for the
more generic “violent extremism”. Recently the White House also struggled to
explain whether the US believed the Afghan Taliban to be a terrorist
organisation.
The refusal to directly assess any Islamic role in the
terrifying scenes playing out in Europe, the Middle East and Africa has drawn
criticism from those who say Obama has prioritised political correctness over a
frank acknowledgement of reality. National security hawks, in particular, have
argued that Obama’s counterterrorism strategy couldn’t possibly be successful
if the president was unable or unwilling to confront the true nature of the
threat.
Yet the argument over terminology has increasingly become a
distraction, including this week as Obama gathered law enforcement officials,
Muslim leaders and lawmakers for a three-day summit on violent extremism.
Obama echoed the concern over the killings in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, though he did not directly address the question of the
murderer’s motive, preferring to emphasise the solidarity of other Americans.
“Most recently, with the brutal murders in Chapel Hill of
three young Muslim Americans, many Muslim Americans are worried and afraid and
I want to be as clear as I can be: as Americans of all faiths and backgrounds,
we stand with you in grief and we offer our love and we offer our support,” he
said.
Obama is due to speak again on Thursday when delegates from
about 65 countries gather for the summit’s closing session at the state
department.
