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"If we're to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate," the president said. "That does not mean denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities. It's a real problem that Muslims must confront without excuse."Obama's request was followed by a similar appeal from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
"It is unfair to speak about the Muslim community in this way," said Mustafa Kamel, the imam of the West Coast Islamic Center in Anaheim, southern California, Reuters reports. Two 24-year-old men, who had worshiped in mosques in that part of California, were arrested in May accused of conspiring to aid the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group. Imams and mosque workers said the arrested men were victims of biased law enforcement. "There is a lot of suspicion of the FBI here," said Kamel, an immigrant from Egypt who came to the US 13 years ago.
The Islamic Shura Council of Southern California also criticized Obama's request, arguing it singled out Muslims. The council's executive director, Shakeel Syed, questioned why US leaders did ask Christian churches to self-police for white supremacists after nine African-Americans were shot to death at a church in Charleston, South Carolina in June.
Comment: The US is home to approximately 6 million Muslims, many of whom feel discrimination has become a daily way of life, along with the demand to rectify social problems exacerbated by escalating phobic propaganda. The US, itself, is currently a hotbed of injustice, fomented by the illegal, dishonest and horrific actions of its government in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. It does not bode well.
The 9/11 tragedy and the attack in San Bernardino were manufactured/manipulated events blamed on targets of Arab/Muslim profile to influence the American public to a particular response and action. 9/11 was about initiating the Iraq war. San Bernardino was a grand media deflection to limit coverage of events happening in the Middle East while increasing fear at home.