WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday outlined his administration’s efforts to counter what he calls “violent extremism” in a speech to law enforcement, community and religious leaders gathered to discuss how to prevent groups like the Islamic State from recruiting disaffected young people to their ranks.
The sessions on Wednesday — part of a three-day meeting here — focused on government-backed community pilot programs in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Los Angeles and Boston in which law enforcement and civic and religious leaders have worked together to counter extremist influences.
“We need to find new ways to amplify the voices of peace and tolerance and inclusion, and we especially need to do it online,” Mr. Obama said in remarks at the summit meeting. “We’ve got to discredit these ideologies. We have to tackle them head on, and we can’t shy away from these discussions.”
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Some Muslim leaders were invited to the summit but declined to attend, including Fahd Ahmed, the acting director of the DRUM-South Asian Organizing Center, an immigrant community group in Queens, N.Y. The government’s approach to countering violent extremism “continues to see Muslim communities only through the lens of security, which inherently implies suspicion,” he said in an interview, calling the programs “discriminatory.”
“We know it is a flawed model,” said Mr. Ahmed, who added that he could not “in good conscience” attend the Washington conference.
