The first step in fighting violent extremism is to “amplify the voices of peace and tolerance,” President Barack Obama said Thursday while appearing at the three-day Summit to Counter Violent Extremism.
Obama outlined a three-part strategy for combating extremism: first discrediting the ideologies behind the extremism by appealing to forces of moderation, and then addressing the economic and political grievances that feed extremism.
As we go forward, we need to find new ways to amplify the voices of peace and tolerance and inclusion — and we especially need to do it online. We also need to lift up the voices of those who know the hypocrisy of groups like ISIL firsthand, including former extremists. … So that’s the first challenge — we’ve got to discredit these ideologies. We have to tackle them head on. And we can’t shy away from these discussions. And too often, folks are, understandably, sensitive about addressing some of these root issues, but we have to talk about them, honestly and clearly. (Applause.) And the reason I believe we have to do so is because I’m so confident that when the truth is out we’ll be successful. Now, a second challenge is we do have to address the grievances that terrorists exploit, including economic grievances. Poverty alone does not cause a person to become a terrorist, any more than poverty alone causes somebody to become a criminal. There are millions of people — billions of people — in the world who live in abject poverty and are focused on what they can do to build up their own lives, and never embrace violent ideologies. …
Just as we address economic grievances, we need to face a third challenge — and that’s addressing the political grievances that are exploited by terrorists. When governments oppress their people, deny human rights, stifle dissent, or marginalize ethnic and religious groups, or favor certain religious groups over others, it sows the seeds of extremism and violence. It makes those communities more vulnerable to recruitment. Terrorist groups claim that change can only come through violence. And if peaceful change is impossible, that plays into extremist propaganda.
The Simon Weisenthal Center issued a statement today praising the president for his call “to bolster the forces of tolerance,” but added that the president needed to advocate and pursue a military response to terror groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), urging the president “to prioritize the military defeat of ISIS and other theologically-driven Islamist terrorist groups who are marching across the Arab world.”
Obama asserted in his speech that the extremists had “perverted” Islam. But an analysis published this week in The Atlantic argued that in fact, the ideology of ISIS “derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam,” and only military action is likely to defeat fully ISIS.
In an analysis published in The Daily Beast earlier this month, Michael Weiss and Michael Pregent observed that the political grievances that many Iraqi Sunnis have with Iran—whose proxy forces are brutalizing Iraq’s Sunni population—are what drive them to support ISIS.
One of the organizations participating in the Summit to Counter Violent Extremism is Ka Joog, a Minnesota-based Somali-American youth advocacy organization. In Why Are There Jihadists In Minnesota?, Tower Magazine assistant editor Aiden Pink profiled Ka Joog, one of many organizations that are working to counter terrorist recruitment in their local community.
Most counter-recruitment strategies in the Somali community have been reactive. [Community activist Abdirizak] Bihi hears about a troubled kid and drives him to classes. The FBI refused to disclose specific investigative techniques, but does readily admit that information provided by “extensive outreach” with community members is a crucial component of their counter-recruitment strategy. But only one organization, Ka Joog, is truly proactive. By giving young people a strong support system and a love of American and Somali culture from an early age, its members believe they can prevent their children from developing the kind of disaffection that makes them vulnerable to terrorist recruitment.
Ka Joog, which means “stay away” in Somali, was founded by twelve young men in 2007. It was intended to be an ad hoc, grassroots effort at youth engagement. The founders didn’t think the organization would be permanent, but six years later, it has received an award from the FBI; its executive director has testified before Congress; and, at a White House event, President Obama told Ka Joog’s staff that he was a big fan of the organization. “It was absolutely amazing that the leader of the free world has heard of us,” said Mohamed Farah, Ka Joog’s 29-year-old executive director, who has lived in the U.S. since he was three years old.
Ka Joog’s most successful endeavor is its afterschool mentoring program, which pairs Somali students from kindergarten through twelfth grade with someone a few years older. Students in the program show a 0.47 improvement in their GPA. Ka Joog has also begun Boy Scout Troop 252, teaching Somali boys swimming, kayaking, archery, and even shooting. “We make sure things are culturally specific—for example, we only serve halal food,” Farah said. “This also helps other people in other communities get to know us, because we compete against them, and it’s a good learning moment for everyone to learn about our community.”
[Photo: The White House / YouTube ]