Wednesday at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, President Barack Obama likened the killing of three Chapel Hill Muslim college students, for which the ongoing investigation has yet to concluded a motive, to the Fort Hood and Boston Marathon terror attacks.
The president said, “After Americans were killed at Fort Hood and the Boston Marathon, it didn’t divide us. We came together as one American family. In the face of horrific acts of violence at a Sikh temple in Milwaukee or a Jewish community center outside Kansas City, we reaffirmed our commitment to pluralism and freedom, repulsed by the notion anyone should be targeted by who they are, what they look like or how they worship. 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, all faiths and backgrounds, we stand with you in your grief and we offer our love and we offer our support. My point is this. As Americans, we are strong and we are resilient and when tragedy strikes, when we take a hit, we pull together and we draw on what’s best in our character. Our optimism, our commitment to each other, our commitment to our values, our respect for one another. We stand up and we rebuild and we recover and we emerge stronger than before. That’s who we are.”
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