It was inevitable that the release of the Obama administration's new counter-radicalization strategy document, "Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism," would garner heavy criticism from the usual quarters. At this point, the White House couldn't release a Christmas card without setting off a virulent national debate.
Some critics of the strategy document argue that by not explicitly naming "radical Jihadism" or "Islamic fundamentalism" as the chief threat to US security, the White House is endangering the lives of Americans in an attempt to be politically correct. Others claim that the administration's focus on community development and grass-roots mobilization efforts is ineffectual because it seems to equate radical extremism with more localized problems like gang violence.
Yet the strategy document that these critics decry as weak and "politically correct" may in fact be the most enlightened, most effective plan that the United States has ever put forth in dealing with the problem of domestic terror.
First of all, while the new strategy document specifically cites al-Qaeda as the biggest threat to the United States, it no longer uses the term "Islamic fundamentalism" for the same reason the Bush Administration stopped using it, because it is counter-productive to a policy that relies on the assistance of Muslims to be effective. Ever since the attacks on September 11, 2001, American Muslims have faced increasing levels of discrimination as pundits and politicians repeatedly claim "Islam" - not terrorism, not al-Qaeda, not the Taliban - is the biggest threat to our national security. Never mind that the latest Gallup poll showed that American Muslims are far more likely than any other religious group in the United States to say there is never any justification for the killing of civilians (that's a staggering 78% of Muslims, compared to 38% of Protestants, 39% of Catholics, and 43% of Jews). Continuing to use rhetoric that explicitly ties Islam to terrorism not only further alienates the very community the government is desperate to reach out to, it ignores the very real danger of domestic terror attacks from radical right-wing groups, which analysts warn are on the rise in the US.
Secondly, as every counter-radicalization expert will tell you, the most effective way to fight domestic extremism is through community outreach. Contrary to what the President's critics claim, extremist groups function exactly like gangs. Both attract recruits who feel socially isolated, who struggle with a lack of economic opportunities, and who long for a strong sense of identity (Shameless plug: I wrote an entire book on this subject called Beyond Fundamentalism). Why shouldn't the same efforts that have proven successful in dealing with gang violence not be used to deter other forms ideological violence, be they religiously motivated or not?
The White House's new strategy document does not ignore the importance of law enforcement in countering violent extremism. It simply focuses an equal amount of energy on using community outreach tools to prevent people from joining extremist groups in the first place.
By focusing on a wider range of domestic threats beyond just "radical Islam," and by moving more government resources toward preventive measures, the Obama White House is being neither politically correct nor weak on terrorism. It is making Americans safer.
Follow Reza Aslan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rezaaslan
J.S. Vijaya: Guns and Gangs in Canada and the Warm Blanket of Fear
it is still available at FAS.org and worth re-visiting in light of the horrific terrorist acts in Norway:
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf
And the NYTimes story on the censored report:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/us/25debate.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2
"In 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security produced a report, “Rightwing Extremism,” suggesting that the recession and the election of an African-American president might increase the threat from white supremacists, conservatives in Congress strongly objected. Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, quickly withdrew the report and apologized for what she said were its flaws.
"Daryl Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security analyst who was the primary author of the report, said in an interview that after he left the department in 2010, the number of analysts assigned to non-Islamic militancy of all kinds was reduced to two from six....
"The killings in Norway “could easily happen here,” he said. The Hutaree, an extremist Christian militia in Michigan accused last year of plotting to kill police officers and planting bombs at their funerals, had an arsenal of weapons larger than all the Muslim plotters charged in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks combined, he said."
There is no such thing as mind control so the only way to deal with this threat is to keep an eye on these people. Hopefully the local mosques will cooperate with law enforcement even if that compromises religious fervor.
his name is Aslan, with an s. He is a reformer. he is a US citizen, here to stay and not on a visit (this is what the US constitution says). CAIR is the only true interface between american muslims and american state, a platform for them to speak up.
The only reasonable conclusion is that Obama's initiative isn't about "safety" at all, but about something else and I seriously dislike the possibilities of what that something else might be, which range from pointless political pandering at best to something darker.
Never mind that most of the civilian casualties inflicted in Iraq and Afghanistan are by radical Muslims. Maybe they're not trying to justify it because overseas, they're just doing it?
While I have never seen the least evidence of the supposed anti-Islamic fervor that lefties claim is sweeping the land, if our government continues to ignore its responsibilities I would not be surprised if people start taking matters into their own hands. Watch it happen in England, where the police won't do anything about the looters and arsonists rapaging through the cities. Eventually, the citizenry is going to rise up and defend itself. Good.
I find a disconnect between your love for NASA and what you call "Muslim outreach." NASA is ideally supposed to be about the betterment of all humanity (a lot of NASA scientists are Trekkie nerds, if you didn't know). And I think Muslim communities count as "all humanity."