Obama: World Must Fight Extremists’ False Promises

Local Editor

US President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged Western and Muslim leaders to unite to defeat the "false promises of extremism" and reject extremists' 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."

In the wake of brutal extremist attacks in Europe and the Middle East, Obama said more must be done to prevent groups like "ISIL" and al-Qaeda from recruiting and radicalizing.

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 radicalize and recruit or incite people to violence," must be tackled, Obama said.

He chose to face down the critics Wednesday saying "we are not at war with Islam.

We are at war with people who have perverted Islam."
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."

Communities in the United States and abroad must do their part, Obama said, stressing al-Qaeda and "ISIL" "deliberately target their propaganda in the hopes of reaching and brainwashing young Muslims."
 
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team