President Barack Obama on Thursday called for a global effort to curb terrorist groups, urging a roomful of world leaders to tackle the poverty and political strife that he said have become “magnets for violent extremism.”
Speaking to leaders from more than 60 countries on the last day of a three-day White House meeting on countering violent extremism, Obama pointed to political and economic grievances as potent recruitment tools for terrorists.
“When people are oppressed and human rights are denied, particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines, when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism,” Obama said. “It creates an environment that is ripe for terrorists to exploit.”
Obama’s remarks came as he faces criticism for his administration’s reluctance to categorize as “Islamic extremism” the threat posed by terrorists such as the Islamic State.
Obama defended the decision for a second day, saying, “The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie.”
He accused the terrorists of harboring “warped ideologies” and attempting to use Islam to justify violence.
“These terrorists are desperate for legitimacy. And all of us have a responsibility to refute the notion that groups like ISIL somehow represent Islam, because that is a falsehood that embraces the terrorist narrative,” Obama said, using the government’s preferred acronym for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS.
The terrorist groups are targeting propaganda to Muslim youth, he said, and he called on Muslim communities, scholars and clerics to “push back.”
“Not just on twisted interpretations of Islam,” he added, “but also on the lie that we are somehow engaged in a clash of civilizations; that America and the West are somehow at war with Islam or seek to suppress Muslims.”
Republicans were quick to criticize his latest remarks.
“The notion that radical Islam isn’t at war with the West is an ugly lie,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on Twitter.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused Obama of being an “apologist for radical Islamic terrorists” in a Fox News appearance on Wednesday.
But Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who accused Cruz of “scoring cheap partisan political points,” said Obama’s critics are missing the point.
“ISIS is trying to characterize the United States and our allies as being at war with Islam, and ISIS is trying to characterize themselves as being the legitimate heirs of the Prophet Muhammad,” Coons said on CNN.
“What our president is saying is we’re not at war with Islam, we’re at war with people who have perverted Islam and who are claiming to be Islamic extremist, Islamic jihadists, in order to advance their own legitimacy,” Coons said.
Obama in his remarks called for renewed attention to economic empowerment, noting that impoverished communities feed “instability and disorder and make those communities ripe for extremist recruitment. And we have seen that across the Middle East, and we’ve seen it across North Africa.”
He said the U.S. as a result of the summit planned new commitments to help young people, including in Muslim communities, find work in science and technology.
And he called for expanding opportunity and education for women and girls.
“Nations will not truly succeed without the contributions of their women,” Obama said in remarks at the State Department.
He called on governments to do more to counter terrorist propaganda and said the United States was joining with the United Arab Emirates to create a new digital communications hub and work with religious, civil society and community leaders to counter terrorist propaganda.
“We need to do more to help lift up voices of tolerance and peace, especially online,” he said.
Obama also urged countries to embrace elections, freedom of religion and diversity.
“We have to ensure that our diverse societies truly welcome and respect people of all faiths and backgrounds, and leaders set the tone on this issue,” he said. “Groups like al Qaida and ISIL peddle the lie that some of our countries are hostile to Muslims. Meanwhile, we’ve also seen, most recently in Europe, a rise in excusable acts of anti-Semitism, or in some cases, anti-Muslim sentiment or anti-immigrant sentiment.”
He also suggested that not enough people personally know any Muslims and that the “news cycle” can leave a “distorted impression.”
He added, “The world hears a lot about the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo in Paris, but the world has to also remember the Paris police officer, a Muslim, who died trying to stop them.”