Obama Calls for Expansion of Human Rights to Combat Extremism

By PETER BAKER President Obama on Thursday called on nations around the world to expand human rights, religious tolerance and peaceful dialogue as they struggle to combat a spate of terrorism that has recently struck places as far afield as Australia, Canada and Europe.

In an address to world leaders on the final day of his summit on violent extremism, Mr. Obama said that poverty and political grievances fuel alienation that can lead to bursts of killing like those seen in Paris, Copenhagen, Sydney and Ottawa. In addition to building up security forces, he said nations must “put an end to the cycle of hate” through opportunity and freedom.

“When people are oppressed and human rights are denied, particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines, when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism,” Mr. Obama told a gathering of ministers from dozens of countries. “It creates an environment that is ripe for terrorists to exploit. When peaceful democratic change is impossible, it feeds into the terrorist propaganda that violence is the only answer available.

“So we must recognize that lasting stability and real security require democracy,” he added. “That means free elections where people can choose their own future and independent judiciaries that uphold the rule of law, and police and security forces that respect human rights, and free speech and freedom for civil society groups, and it means freedom of religion.”

The president’s remarks came as the summit meeting was wrapping up amid fierce political debate about the administration’s approach to terrorism. More than 13 years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States is still searching for a consensus about how to tackle an enemy more elusive and less structured than the familiar Cold War adversary in Moscow.

The issue has grown more urgent with the rise of the terrorist group calling itself the Islamic State. Mr. Obama, who has prided himself on ending American involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has opened a new war in the region by launching airstrikes against the Islamic State, but his critics contend that his strategy is too restrained and his own view of the threat is too limited.

In promoting democracy and freedom as part of the solution, Mr. Obama is returning to a theme he has advanced before, and one that his predecessor, President George W. Bush, made the centerpiece of his second inaugural address in 2005. Mr. Obama, like Mr. Bush before him, argued that oppression, corruption and injustice create openings for extremists to exploit disgruntled young people. He singled out religious intolerance especially.

“When people spew hatred toward us because of their faith or because they’re immigrants, it feeds into terrorist narratives,” Mr. Obama told the audience gathered at the State Department on Thursday. “It feeds a cycle of fear and resentment and a sense of injustice upon which extremists prey. And we can’t allow cycles of suspicion to tear the fabrics of our countries.”

He added that dialogue between countries was important. But he added: “What’s most needed today, perhaps, are more dialogues within countries, not just across faiths but also within faiths. Violent extremists and terrorists thrive when people of different religions or sects pull away from each other and are able to isolate each other and label each other as ‘they’ instead of ‘us.’” He emphasized solidarity with the foreign ministers he addressed. “We are all in the same boat,” he said. “We have to help each other. In this work, you will have a strong partner in me and the United States of America.”

Yet if he embraced a message on democracy and freedom akin to one his predecessor sent, Mr. Obama offered less emphasis on military force than Mr. Bush was known for. Mr. Obama condemned recent terrorist attacks but did not present terrorism as an existential threat in the same way Mr. Bush did. His language was careful and measured, without the same moral indignation summoned by his secretary of state, John Kerry, who just moments before the president spoke referred to terrorists as “murderers and thugs.”

Mr. Obama’s speech came after a discussion that involved top ministers from several countries, including Japan and Jordan, both still reeling from the recent murder of their citizens who had been held hostage by the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL. Ministers from France and Denmark thanked the international community for its support following attacks in their countries.

Among others who spoke on Thursday were representatives of countries with authoritarian systems of their own, including Egypt, where the military has reasserted control and cracked down on dissent, and Kazakhstan, which has been ruled by the same former Soviet official for more than a quarter-century. That underscored the awkward alliances the United States has built with governments it otherwise might disparage in the name of fighting terrorism.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, emphasized that the fight against terrorism should not be used as a justification for tactics that themselves were wrong. “We will never find our way by discarding our moral compass,” he said. “We need cool heads. We need common sense. And we must never let fear rule.”

He added that better political and economic systems would be as important as military responses to terrorism. “Bullets are not the silver bullets,” he said. “Missiles may kill terrorists, but good governance kills terrorism.”

Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s foreign minister, said world leaders “must address the root causes,” including “political alienation,” unemployment, poverty and illiteracy. “It is all about education, education, education; opportunity, opportunity, opportunity; empowerment, empowerment, empowerment,” he said.

But research presented at the summit meeting suggested that it may not be as simple as that. While many assume that terrorists are religious zealots or politically aggrieved, Peter Neumann, the director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization in London, said interviews with recruits showed a variety of backgrounds. Some are pious, he said, and some are not. Some have a troubled history, but others would be successful back at home. Some were thrill seekers, some enthusiastic about the totalitarian model offered by groups like the Islamic State, and some mentally ill.

Their motivations and personal histories, Mr. Neumann said, “are so different” that it will pose very different challenges to the nations of the world. Mr. Kerry, opening the day’s proceedings, said there was no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem. Military action must be married with political, economic and other methods, he said.

“There’s been a silly debate in the media in the last days about what you have to do,” Mr. Kerry said. “You have to do everything. You have to take the people off the battlefield who are there today. But you’re kind of stupid if all you do is do that and you don’t prevent more people from going to the battlefield.”