Washington - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged Western and
Muslim leaders to unite to defeat the "false promises of extremism" and reject
jihadists' claims to represent Islam.
"The terrorists do not speak for a billion Muslims," Obama told delegates from
60 countries at a White House summit on countering radicalism.
"They try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors," he said.
"They are not religious leaders, they are terrorists."
Domestically, Obama has been criticised for not describing the attacks in
Denmark, France, Syria and Libya as the work of "Islamic radicals".
He chose to face down the critics on Wednesday saying "we are not at war
with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam."
In the wake of brutal jihadist attacks in Europe and the Middle East, Obama
said more must be done to prevent groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda from
recruiting and radicalising.
The battle, he said, was as much for hearts and minds as one waged by the
military on the ground and in the air.
The "ideologies, the infrastructure of extremists, the propagandists, the
recruiters, the funders who radicalise and recruit or incite people to violence,
must be tackled,” Obama said.
He challenged critics at home and moderate governments abroad to undercut
the jihadist narrative that there is a "clash of civilizations" between an anti-
Muslim west and a radicalised Middle East.
Action plan
Top US diplomat John Kerry, who on Thursday will host a higher-level
ministerial meeting aimed at drawing up an action plan, called it "the defining
fight of our generation".
And he poured cold water on the notion that the thousands of foreign fighters
flowing to the battlefields were all motivated by religious feelings.
Two Britons, among about 4 000 Europeans who have joined ISIS in Iraq and
Syria, had first bought copies of "Islam for Dummies" and "The Koran for
Dummies," he scoffed.
But Kerry made it clear that "we're here for a simple transcendent reason, to
safeguard the future for our people," saying groups like ISIS "want to drag us
back literally into dark ages... obliterate knowledge as they destroy books and
school rooms."
Communities in the United States and abroad must do their part, Obama said,
stressing al-Qaeda and ISIS "deliberately target their propaganda in the hopes
of reaching and brainwashing young Muslims."
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They do so through "high-quality videos, the online magazines, the use of
social media, terrorists Twitter accounts - it's all designed to target today's
young people online in cyberspace."
The summit has been in the pipeline for months, but took on greater
significance after several attacks, including on a cultural centre and on a
synagogue in Copenhagen which left two people dead.
Among those attending is Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, where attacks by
Islamist gunmen last month on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly magazine
and a kosher supermarket left 17 people dead.
On Sunday, a video emerged apparently showing Islamic State jihadists
beheading 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya.
‘We will win’
Kerry said the challenge was to "coordinate almost as never before".
"The task before us is to combine the right partners, the right planning, the
right degree of political commitment and over a sustained period of time we
will win," the veteran diplomat insisted.
Sessions on Wednesday highlighted existing anti-extremist programs in
Boston, Minneapolis-Saint Paul and greater Los Angeles, which involve
community policing and other tactics.
The US State Department announced the appointment of a special counter-
terrorism communications coordinator, but it was unclear what concrete
outcomes there would be.
Obama meanwhile spoke emotionally about a Valentine's card he received
from an 11-year-old Muslim American called Sabrina.
"'I am worried about people hating Muslims,'" she wrote. "'Please tell everyone
that we are good people, and we're just like everyone else.'"
- AFP



source: m.news24.com/nigeria/World/News/Obama-Extremists-have-perverted-Islam-20150219-3

Obama

Say NO to islamic madness!!!

Ok

What a blockhead. Keep living in denial.

If there is any perversion, then it was started by Mohammed himself!
The man had a fair share of raids and slaughter of the innocent.