Monday at the Pentagon, after meeting on the military efforts against ISIS with his national security team, President Barack Obama urged caution to the America people and said that not only Muslims commit acts of terror, saying, “Here in the United States, we’ve all kinds of home grown terrorism.”
Obama said, “I think it is important for us to recognize the threat of violent extremism is not restricted to any one community. Here in the United States, we’ve all kinds of home grown terrorism. And tragically, recent history reminds how even a single individual can inflict horrendous harm on Americans. So our efforts to counter violent extremism must not target any one community, because of the patriotic Muslim Americans who are partners in keeping our country safe.”
“That said, we have to acknowledge that ISIL has been particularly effective in reaching out to and including vulnerable people around the world in the United States,” he continued. “And they are targeting Muslim communities around the world. Numerous individuals have been arrested across the country for plotting attacks or attempting to join ISIL in Syria and Iraq. Two men, apparently inspired by ISIL, opened fire in Garland, Texas. And because of our success over the years in improving homeland security, we’ve made it harder for terrorists to carry out large scale attacks like 9/11 here, but the threat of lone wolves, or small cells of terrorists is harder to prevent. It is one of the most difficult challenges we face.”