Obama calls on US to embrace its Muslims
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama has argued that in the fight against violent extremism, the U.S. has one thing going for it that Europe doesn't: a long tradition of warmly embracing its immigrants, including Muslims.
With the Islamic State group spreading and terrorists gaining strength in the Mideast and Africa, Obama has sought to use this week's White House summit on violent extremism to urge the world to broaden its response far beyond military interventions. US airstrikes have managed to blunt some of the militants' gains in Iraq and Syria, but they don't address the extreme ideologies that underpin deadly groups such as IS, al- Shabab and Boko Haram.
"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," Obama told the summit Wednesday. He planned to speak again Thursday when delegates from about 65 countries gather for the summit's closing session at the State Department. But not all MuslimAmericans feel like full members of American society, and security experts warned against assuming the US is impervious to those who seek to recruit and radicalize.
Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the US has largely been spared the terrorist assaults that have hit cities in Denmark, Belgium and France, growing out of radical interpretations of Islam. In the weeks since the Charlie Hebdo newspaper shootings in Paris, Obama and other US figures have portrayed the US as being at a lower risk. After all, America is known as the "Great Melting Pot," where minorities of all stripes are made to feel at home.