Grappling with attacks, US leaders ask Muslim Americans to fight back

“He spent about as much time talking about what we should not do as he did about what we will do”, said Stephanopoulous. At the same time, he asserted that it is the responsibility of the leaders of the Muslim community, both inside the USA and globally, to come out strongly and openly against terrorist groups like the ISIL. “As groups like ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] grew stronger amidst the chaos of war in Iraq and then Syria, and as the Internet erases the distance between countries, we see growing effort by terrorists to poison the minds of people like the Boston Marathon bombers and the San Bernardino killers”.

“We need to define the enemy the way the enemy sees itself”, said Jonathan Matusitz, associate professor of human communication and author of the book “Terrorism and Communication”.

Sunday night’s address was only the third time the Oval Office has been used by President Obama – a point hardly lost on historian and author H.W. Brands, senior chair in history at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jeb Bush, who’s been barely able to contain his disdain for Obama’s foreign policy, was asked on MSNBC yesterday about specific elements of the president’s anti-ISIS policy.

President Obama insisted “Muslims around the world” must “root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization”, though he did not say how.

American Muslims had the same questions as most Americans, ahead of President Obama’s Sunday night speech to the nation about terror.

INSKEEP: He also argued that his strategy to defeat ISIS, the group that has been calling for such attacks, will work. “Nothing that happened in the speech tonight is going to assuage people’s fears”, Florida Sen.

Mustafa El-Amin, the leader of a Muslim religious center in Newark, New Jersey, said he agreed with the president. Obama did call for cooperation between private companies and law enforcement to ensure potential attackers can’t use technology to evade detection.

Halting immigration and travel from a particular nation would be extraordinary enough, but under certain circumstances there might at least be reason for considering it. But a “total and complete shutdown” of all people who belong to one of the world’s major religions?

The spread of radical Islam into American communities, he said, is “a real problem that Muslims most confront without excuse”. “This is a matter of national security”. “And these little kids were saying, What will you do about bombs, what will you do about people who kill people?” He did call on Congress to formally authorize the use of force against the Islamic State, and it should do so. Their over use, say to speak, gives an increasingly feverish and fearful tone not only to the way people talk about things and debate but to the intensity of the talk and the tone. But instead of facing up to the challenge, GOP presidential candidates and Republican lawmakers are resorting to risky political rhetoric instead of taking action on policies that would help keep us safe. And throughout his presidency, Obama and his aides have sought backdrops outside Washington. Because no public figure in the United States is allowed to say that the terrorist threat is very small in the West generally, and utterly minuscule if you actually live in the United States.

The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris marked the group’s most aggressive actions in Europe, a co-ordinated effort that left 130 people dead and wounded hundreds more.

HORSLEY: Obama warned terrorist plots have evolved over the years from complex and spectacular 9/11-style attacks to simpler but still deadly assaults like the ones in Paris and San Bernardino. He needs to act accordingly as our national leader. However, the topic will come back under discussion following the San Bernadino attacks last week, the White House said.