President Obama said Friday that a major U.S. advantage in preventing terrorist attacks is that American Muslims are more assimilated than those in Europe seduced by terror networks.
“The United States has one big advantage in this whole process,” Obama said, reflecting on recent attacks in Paris that left 17 people dead.
“Our biggest advantage is that our Muslim populations, they feel themselves to be Americans,” he added in a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House.
The attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo took center stage during the press conference by the two world leaders, as they focused on efforts to prevent a similar episode in the future.
“This phenomenon of violent extremism — the ideology, the networks, the capacity to recruit young people — this has metastasized and it is widespread,” Obama said. “And it has penetrated communities around the world.”
Still, Obama said he didn’t see such extremism as an “existential threat.”
The president’s remarks came after European authorities Friday arrested more than two dozen suspects linked to extremist groups.
