Obama: Confronting Economic Grievances, Not Just Fighting Will Defeat ISIS

Thursday during President Barack Obama remarks on fighting counter-terrorism at the White House Summit to Counter Violent Extremism he said, “We must address the grievances that terrorists exploit,” by finding programs in “entrepreneurship and science and technology. ”

The president said, “We must address the grievances that terrorists exploit, including economic grievances. As I said yesterday, poverty alone does not cause a person to become a terrorist any more than poverty alone causes someone to become a criminal. Billions of people who are poor and are law abiding and peaceful and tolerant and are trying to advance their lives and the opportunities for their families but when people, especially young people, feel entirely trapped in impoverished communities, where there is no order and no path for t, where there are no educational opportunities, where there are no ways to support families and no escape from injustice and the humiliations of corruption, that feeds instability and disorder. And makes those communities right for extremist recruitment and we’ve seen that across the Middle East and seen it across North Africa.”

“So if we’re serious about countering violent extremism, we have to get serious about confronting the economic grievances. Here at this summit, the United States will make new commitments to help young people including Muslim communities to forge new collaborations and entrepreneurship and science and technology. All our nations can reaffirm our commitment to broad based development that creates growth and jobs. Not just for the few at the top but for the many,’ he added.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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