President Barack Obama has done an admirable job of engaging the Islamic world during his first year in office, with words of good will and a renewed focus on diplomacy.
Obama has traveled to Egypt and Turkey and spoken directly to Muslims across the globe, concentrating on our shared values and morality.
With that said, it was encouraging to hear the president lay out the realistic limits of diplomacy and good will in Norway this week. Terror based on an extreme interpretation of Islam will remain a frightening reality no matter how often we extend our hand in peace.
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Obama stated that “Evil does exist in the world.” And because evil exists, the president went on to say, military force is justified in confronting it: “It is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”
For confirmation, we needn’t look farther than this year’s troubling evidence of extremism in the United States. Homegrown terrorism appears to be a growing problem despite Obama’s outreach.
This week, five young American Muslims were detained in Pakistan after allegedly trying to connect with al-Qaeda militant groups and then cross the border into Afghanistan to fight U.S. troops. The men were reported missing from the Washington, D.C., area after one of them left behind a farewell video praising jihad.
Then there is the tragic case of Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged with the murder of 13 in the Fort Hood shootings. Authorities reportedly intercepted Hasan e-mails that tie him to radical groups and clerics.
Here in Denver, the Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi was arrested for plotting with others to bomb New York City. A Dallas man was arrested for planning to blow up a skyscraper. In Chicago, two men were accused of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper. There are more incidents.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has acknowledged this trend, recently saying that “home- based terrorism is here. And, like violent extremism abroad, it will be part of the threat picture that we must now confront.”
These episodes, clustered in one year’s time, raise serious concerns about domestic terror but also tell us that extremism is not simply the byproduct of the previous administration’s policies or a robust war on terror.
So while we commend Obama for perhaps recalibrating his public views on foreign policy, we also laud him for his vigilance in the face of extremism.
Good intentions aren’t enough. This is obvious both abroad and here at home.
