Terrorists ‘Betray’ Islam: Obama Asks Muslim Youth To Use Social Media To Counter Extremism

U.S. President Barack Obama said that terrorist groups like Islamic State were promoting a “twisted interpretation” of Islam. He said that the world should continue to practise the “true peaceful nature” of the religion.

The U.S. president’s op-ed on The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday said how much his country had achieved against terrorism. He wrote that the United States had managed to prevent another large-scale attack like 9/11 by strengthening homeland security. However, he refused to blame Muslims in particular for any terrorist activity.

Obama wrote that Muslim youths and entrepreneurs should be helped with the private sector to develop social media tools to counter extremist narratives on the Internet. According to him, former extremists have testified how terrorists “betray” Islam. “The world must continue to lift up the voices of Muslim clerics and scholars who teach the true peaceful nature of Islam,” Obama wrote. He said that the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims had rejected the kind of Islam promoted by terrorist groups.

The American president referred a number of major terrorist activities around the world to indicate how terrorism had evolved. He talked about the massacre in a Pakistan school where the Pakistan Taliban slaughtered more than 100 schoolchildren and their teachers. He mentioned Boko Haram which kidnapped and killed women, men and children.

Obama called for unity, both at home and internationally, to counter terrorism. He admitted that it would not be possible for military forces to solve the problem alone. He mentioned that it was not only the terrorists whom should be confronted. “We also have to confront the violent extremists — the propagandists, recruiters and enablers — who may not directly engage in terrorist acts themselves, but who radicalize, recruit and incite others to do so,” Obama wrote.

According to the U.S. president, the best way to protect people from falling into the grip of violent extremists is the support of their family, friends, teachers and faith leaders. Obama also referred to the three young Muslim Americans who had been brutally killed in Chapel Hill, N.C. He said that the incident had left the Muslim community of the country “worried and afraid.”

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@IBTimes.com.au