Not against religion, but against terrorism

Barack Obama tried to explain how he sees a strategy for the fight against radical groups

The fight against the “ideology of violence” should be the foundation of the international strategy for the confrontation between the extremist groups “Islamic State” and “Al-Qaeda”. This thesis was made on Wednesday by US President Barack Obama at a conference on countering extremism, held in the White House with representatives of several dozen states. This speech is considered by American observers as an important presidential argument in the debate with critics of the anti -terrorism strategy of the White House.

President Obama used his speech to representatives of public groups, local law enforcement agencies and delegations from sixty countries to express his opinion that the struggle with what the president calls the “ideology of violence” should be. This, in his opinion, should first of all be the struggle of ideologies. The Al-Qaida and the Islamic State Groups achieved success in attracting to their side to dissatisfied Muslim youth, exposing themselves as a sacred Islamic army that protects its civilization, and this lies must be exposed, President Obama insists:

We are not waging a war with Islam, we are fighting with those who perverted Islam

- We should not accept their thesis. Because it is a lie. We also should not confirm their legitimacy in the role of religious leaders. They are not leaders, they are terrorists. We are not waging a war with Islam, we are fighting with those who perverted Islam.

The president directly called on Muslim leaders to make more efforts in order to discredit, as Barack Obama put it, "the idea that our countries are tuned to the clamp of Islam."

Representatives of the Obama administration say that this three -day conference was conceived as a kind of forum at which representatives of public organizations, religious leaders, representatives of local and central law enforcement services of different countries can discuss ways to neutralize the reasons for the radicalization of Muslim youth in different countries, ways to integrate into society.

However, such recipes, and most importantly, the approach of the White House to the problem of Islamic radicalism cause loud criticism in the United States, both from conservative commentators and from many of their more liberal colleagues. The main claim is that President Obama does not have a clear strategy for the confrontation of the threat of radicalism, because he is not even ready to clearly formulate it. President Obama and his environment reproach that in their speeches and comments they, for example, avoid the phrase "Islamic radicalism", preferring the impersonal term "extremism" in order not to offend the religious feelings of Muslims. According to the commentator of the NBC television company Chuck Todd , according to various sources, serious debate continues in the President of Obama about whether the phrase "Islamic radicalism" should be used or not. Until now, Barack Obama preferred "violent radicalism."

- It seems that they are trying to observe political correctness so much that they miss the problem of the problem. It consists in the fact that ISIS confronts the Western world in the person, in the words of the magazine "Atlantic", a cult, a sect of death. And this group uses Islam, its radical shape in order to replenish the ranks of terrorists.

Barack Obama acts in Congress regarding the use of military force against ISIS, February 11, 2015

In his speech at a conference in Washington, Barack Obama, calling Islamic spiritual leaders to fight those who "perverts Islam", gave, as the newspaper Los Angeles Times writes, the most direct answer to those who criticize his choice of words in public statements. However, the more important thesis of critics remains unrequited, claiming that unsuccessful, in their opinion, the president’s words reflect the lack of a real strategy for the fight against Islamic radicals. According to a poll on Tuesday, a survey conducted by order of the CNN television company, most Americans - 58 percent - believe that the campaign against ISIS is unsuccessful. Forty -one percent believes that the struggle is successful. In October last year, opinions diverged equally on this subject. In the same proportions, now the number of those who approve and does not approve of Barack Obama to neutralize Islamic radical groups. Moreover, according to the survey, the Americans are much more decisive than the president, are tuned to the fight against the Islamists. Almost half of the respondents - 47 percent - speak out in favor of the use of American troops in operations in Iraq and, possibly, in Syria. 50 percent of the respondents are still opposed, but the number of supporters has increased by four percent from November, while the number of opponents remained the same.

Critics of the President, in accordance with these moods, insist that the main priority of the United States should be the destruction of radical groups that threaten both the USA and the world.