As U.S. planes carry out air strikes over Iraq and Syria, President Barack Obama made his case for stopping the ISIS threat to the United Nations on Wednesday, urging Muslims in the Middle East to reject the ideology behind groups like the Islamic State.
Muslims took great pains to explain once again that extremists do not speak for them, or what their religion teaches about tolerance. But at the United Nations General Assembly, the president said it was important for such followers of the faith to speak out against an ideology that perverts what Islam is about -- and thus poses a grave danger to the world.
“It is time for a new compact among the civilized people of the world to eradicate war at its most fundamental source: the corruption of young minds by violent ideology,” Obama said.
Students of the Muslim Community Center Academy in Morton Grove heard once again from their elders that what they might be seeing on the news is people misusing their faith to justify killing.
“We are expressing that, we are trying to educate that hopefully now that can resonate not just here but throughout the world,” said Habeeb Quadri, principal at Muslim Community Center Academy.
After lunchtime prayers, the devout headed back to class. The principal said the president is laying out a challenge to Muslim youth worldwide.
“That is something our faith wants us to express to make sure what’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong,” said Quadri.
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk doubted the president would change many hearts among those bent on fighting a religious war with the West, but that America is trying to speak broadly to Muslim youth.
“The long-term strategy would be to always talk these kids in their own language,” said Sen. Kirk (R-Ill.) “That’s why A.M. radio is so essential for the U.S.”
But others said the president missed the mark with Muslim youth, and that connecting with the forces of democracy that exist in the Middle East, is how to bring about peace.
“While we are now acting against ISIS as I believe the world should, we are still turning a blind eye to Assad and the dictators of the region who are creating the context for the likes of ISIS to be an alternative,” said Ahmed Rehab, Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago.
In his 38-minute speech, the president acknowledged changing hearts and minds in terms of “sectarianism and extremism is a generational task, a task for the people of the Middle East themselves.” And he was clear no external power can simply make that happen.