Keith Ellison rebukes US strategy to counter violent extremism at White House summit as Obama calls idea that counter-terrorism agenda is anti-Islam ‘a lie’
Washington’s first Muslim congressman has publicly rebuked the Obama administration’s terrorism strategy during a White House summit on countering violent extremism, warning that recent moves to prevent money transfers to Somalia risked radicalising its large expatriate community in the US.
Keith Ellison, who represents a Minnesota district with the highest Muslim population in the US, also criticised the response to the murder of three students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, arguing that a failure to prosecute hate crimes fuelled the narrative that America was at war with Islam.
Ellison’s remarks came on the second day of a summit characterised until now by vice-president Joe Biden’s claims the US was more experienced than Europe at preventing extremism because of its history as a immigrant nation.
But Ellison drew applause from an audience of Muslim community leaders at the White House with a series of pointed criticisms of the way the US handles religious minorities.
“The violent extremist makes the case that America is at war with Islam and Muslims, and we have to assert that this is not true; not just in word, but in deed,” he said.
“The reason we are susceptible to violent extremism is that we have not deepened opportunity enough … economic deprivation makes people susceptible to being lured and seduced,” Ellison said. “But the other part is social and legal deprivation as well.”
The congressman said he had flown to the summit with the “sole purpose of ringing the alarm bell” over a recent decision to prevent US banks handling money transfers to Somalia.
The move was intended to prevent funding of terrorist groups operating in east Africa, but has sparked alarm among development experts by also cutting off an estimated $215m in annual remittances to Somali families from their relatives in the US.
“On February 6, our financial services system stopped working with Somali money-wiring services to send money to Somalia,” said Ellison. “This is important because in the region, the violent extremist wants to be able to say ‘See, they won’t even let your relatives send you money.’ They want to be able to say that and we have got to be able to stop them from saying that.”
He also joined a growing chorus of voices expressing concern at the relatively slow response and limited public reaction to the shooting of three Muslim students, which police initially claimed was over a parking dispute, but had now sparked an FBI inquiry due to the alleged anti-religious views of their killer.
“It’s important that law enforcement prosecute hate crimes against Muslims … It’s important that we at least admit that what happened in Chapel Hill probably wasnot only about a parking space,” said Ellison.
“This defies our sense of logic and common sense. This actually helps to support the false narrative of violent extremism; they want to make the case that America hates you, is against you, join us.”
“Razan, Yusor and Deah – the three victims – were living, walking, breathing examples of countering violent extremism until their lives were taken away,” added the congressman. “Let us not slip into a mistaken idea that terrorism is somehow a Muslim idea.”
In the first of two speeches to the summit, Obama later echoed the concern over the killings in North Carolina, though did not directly address the question of the murderer’s motive, preferring to emphasise the solidarity of other Americans.
“Most recently, with the brutal murders in Chapel Hill of three young Muslim Americans, many Muslim Americans are worried and afraid and I want to be as clear as I can be: as Americans of all faiths and backgrounds, we stand with you in grief and we offer our love and we offer our support,” he said.
The president also reiterated his determination to avoid letting the counter-extremism agenda become characterised as a battle against Islam, saying this would be playing into the hands of terrorists and the Islamic State.
“They propagate the nation, the American, and the West generally, is at war with Islam; that’s how they recruit, that’s how they try to radicalise young people,” he said.
“We must never accept the premise that they put forward because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek.”
Earlier in the summit, Sheikh Sa’ad Musse Roble, a Minneapolis imam, introduced a session examining the city’s attempts to counter violent extremism by reading a passage from the Qur’an on the sanctity of human life.
The summit, which will be addressed by Barack Obama later on Wednesday and Thursday, was also attended by the mayor of Paris, and British home secretary Theresa May.
Ellison concluded it was important the democracies show equal treatment to their citizens if they wish to avoid radicalising disaffected young minorities.
“The best defence to violent extremism is to adhere to our values. So that when a young person who could go one way or another is walking around Minneapolis wondering ‘What should I do’, and they are hearing that America’s at war with Islam and maybe that’s true because I don’t have a job and I can’t send money to my family … if we adhere [to our values], respect the faith of all and include more people we will have a safer, better community,” he said.
