But in planning and describing the event, starting Tuesday in Washington, the White House has consistently avoided naming Islamic extremism as its central focus, and officials say the meeting isn’t meant to cover only the threats posed by the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria.
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Extremists drawn to terrorism “come in all sorts of shapes and sizes,” one senior administration official said on Monday, adding the U.S. regards the perpetrators of recent attacks in France and Denmark as terrorists, not members of a particular religion.
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“We need answers that go beyond force,” Biden said. “Countries — all of us, including the United States — we have to work from the ground up and engage our communities and engage those who might be susceptible to being radicalized because they are marginalized.”
Obama will make remarks twice: once on Wednesday during a meeting on how specific U.S. cities are handling the threat of extremism, and again to a meeting of foreign ministers at the State Department on Thursday.
