US President Barack Obama has said that Muslims around the world need to ask serious questions about why extremist ideologies are gaining ground despite a majority of Muslims not subscribing to these ideologies.
While urging non-Muslims not to stereotype Muslims, Obama stressed on the need of Muslim community’s engagement with the justification of violence by extremists using religion.
Speaking at the end of the G20 meetings in Turkey, U.S. President Barack Obama said “that the most vicious terrorist organizations at the moment are ones that claim to be speaking on behalf of true Muslims. And I do think that Muslims around the world — religious leaders, political leaders, ordinary people — have to ask very serious questions about how did these extremist ideologies take root, even if it’s only affecting a very small fraction of the population.”
“It is real and it is dangerous. And it has built up over time, and with social media it has now accelerated,” he said.”On the one hand, non-Muslims cannot stereotype, but I also think the Muslim community has to think about how we make sure that children are not being infected with this twisted notion that somehow they can kill innocent people and that that is justified by religion. And to some degree, that is something that has to come from within the Muslim community itself. And I think there have been times where there has not been enough pushback against extremism,” Obama said.
“There’s been pushback — there are some who say, well, we don’t believe in violence, but are not as willing to challenge some of the extremist thoughts or rationales for why Muslims feel oppressed. And I think those ideas have to be challenged,” Obama said.
The attacks across Paris, which killed 129 people at a concert, restaurants and a soccer stadium on Friday, underlined the threat posed by Islamic State (ISIL) far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq. They overshadowed the two-day summit, which took place just 500 km (310 miles) from Syria.
Describing ISIS as “the face of evil,” Obama said the coordinated attacks in the French capital were a setback in the fight against the jihadists, but that putting U.S. troops on the ground in Syria to combat them “would be a mistake.”
Watch the full video of conference here, however, you can jump to Obama’s comments about Muslim community at 38:00 minutes
US President Barack Obama has said that Muslims around the world need to ask serious questions about why extremist ideologies are gaining ground despite a majority of Muslims not subscribing to these ideologies.
While urging non-Muslims not to stereotype Muslims, Obama stressed on the need of Muslim community’s engagement with the justification of violence by extremists using religion.
Speaking at the end of the G20 meetings in Turkey, U.S. President Barack Obama said “that the most vicious terrorist organizations at the moment are ones that claim to be speaking on behalf of true Muslims. And I do think that Muslims around the world — religious leaders, political leaders, ordinary people — have to ask very serious questions about how did these extremist ideologies take root, even if it’s only affecting a very small fraction of the population.”
“It is real and it is dangerous. And it has built up over time, and with social media it has now accelerated,” he said.”On the one hand, non-Muslims cannot stereotype, but I also think the Muslim community has to think about how we make sure that children are not being infected with this twisted notion that somehow they can kill innocent people and that that is justified by religion. And to some degree, that is something that has to come from within the Muslim community itself. And I think there have been times where there has not been enough pushback against extremism,” Obama said.
“There’s been pushback — there are some who say, well, we don’t believe in violence, but are not as wil
Feature image source: Reuters
