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(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said the U.S. and its allies must strip away any legitimacy that Islamic State and al- Qaeda claim by portraying themselves as religious movements. Obama, who has come under criticism from Republicans who say he avoids acknowledging the Muslim roots of extremist groups, said terrorists use religion as a recruiting tool by portraying the U.S. and European nations as being at war with Islam. “We must never accept the premise they put forward, because it is a lie,” Obama said Wednesday in Washington on the second day of a White House summit on combating extremism. “They are not religious leaders. They’re terrorists. And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.” Deadly attacks in Paris, Sydney and Copenhagen by individuals of Muslim background and possibly inspired by the brutal tactics of Islamic State, along with the group’s spread in Syria, Iraq and now Libya, have raised alarms in Europe and the U.S. about the danger of lone-wolf terrorists, driven by extremist ideology and difficult to detect before they act.
At the summit, the Obama administration is convening representatives of Muslim organizations, law enforcement officials and local political leaders to swap ideas about how to stem root causes of extremism. It also has invited leaders from overseas to take part.

Brainwashing

Obama said civic leaders must recognize that Islamic State and al-Qaeda “deliberately target their propaganda in the hopes of reaching and brainwashing young Muslims” through videos, social media and other online outlets. He said the one way to counter that is to alleviate the alienation and poverty that are the extremists’ best recruiting tool. In the U.S., he said, local and federal authorities must make sure that Muslims aren’t isolated and that they are welcomed and integrated into society. “Muslim Americans feel they have been unfairly targeted,” he said. “We have to be sure that abuses stop, are not repeated, that we do not stigmatize entire communities.” Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, who is chairman of a political action committee aimed at electing Republicans, called the conference a “farce” in a statement and said the administration should be targeting terrorists rather than offering “pie-in-the-sky social welfare programs” to Muslims here and overseas.

Muslim Outreach

The administration’s strategy is also aimed at drawing in the domestic Muslim leaders who Obama is leaning on to identify and isolate potentially violent extremists. Yet some groups say they remain suspicious about the administration’s motivation.
The Muslim Advocates, an Oakland Calif.-based group that that was invited to a White House meeting earlier this month, expressed concern that Obama’s requests for “partnerships” with Muslim community and religious leaders is code for requiring leaders to play a law enforcement role. They also blasted Obama for focusing too narrowly on Muslims, a decision that the group says reinforces a negative stereotype that Islam and terror are linked. “This whole day is focused on American Muslims, frankly,” Farhana Khera, the group’s executive director, said in a telephone interview. “It strikes at the core of what we are as Americans.” Obama is speaking on the topic again tomorrow at the State Department during a session that includes representatives from overseas, including France, Belgium, Mexico and Japan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Annie Linskey in Washington at alinskey@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net Justin Blum