President Barack Obama has denounced Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz’s proposal of instituting special surveillance of American Muslims to prevent radicalization, reminding the senator that kind of measure belongs to oppressive regimes, not democratic and culturally diverse America.
Obama highlighted the fact that American Muslims are an exceptionally successful and integrated community, and face no isolation and any discriminatory step against them would be counterproductive to the fight against violent extremism.
“One of the great strengths of the United States, and part of the reason why we have not seen more attacks in the United States, is we have an extraordinarily successful, patriotic, integrated Muslim American community. They do not feel ghettoized, they do not feel isolated,” Obama said during a Press Conference in Argentina.
Cruz had called for surveillance of Muslims in the wake of terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium. “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized,” the conservative Texas senator had said.
Appearing in CBS’s This Morning program Cruz said he did not know the number of Muslims living in the United States. The host also pointed out that there were no exclusive Muslim neighborhoods in America as there were in Europe, where isolation and ISIS radicalization is a major issue. Cruz, however, felt otherwise.
Cruz’s Republican rival and frontrunner Donald Trump has backed his controversial proposal, and has also called for banning Muslims from entry into the United States.
On the campaign trail, the GOP senator’s suggestion has also drawn sharp rebuke from top Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who said “demonizing” Muslims alienates partners the US needs in fighting the ISIL, also known as ISIS or Daesh. The terror outfit that grew out of the Iraqi and Syrian civil wars has drawn thousands of Western young people into joining them.
In his reaction to Cruz’s controversial proposal, Obama, who earlier this week visited Cuba, also reminded the senator that his father had fled Cuba, which engaged in a similar kind of neighborhood surveillance.
“As far as the notion of having surveillance of neighborhoods where Muslims are present, I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance — which, by the way, the father of Senator Cruz escaped for America, the Land of the Free. The notion that we would start down that slippery slope makes absolutely no sense. It’s contrary to who we are. And it’s not going to help us defeat ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant).
The US president noted the children of Muslims are American children’s friends, going to the same schools.
“They are our colleagues in our workplaces. They are our men and women in uniform fighting for our freedom. And so any approach that would single them out or target them for discrimination is not only wrong and un-American, but it also would be counterproductive, because it would reduce the strength, the antibodies that we have to resist terrorism.”
In the face of Republican criticism that the Obama Administration has not done enough to curb ISIS terror threat, President Obama underscored that Washington remains focused on the reducing the ISIS threat.
“But my top priority is to defeat ISIL and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that’s been taking place around the world. And we see high-profile attacks in Europe, but they’re also killing Muslims throughout the Middle East — people who are innocent, people who are guilty only of worshipping Islam in a different way than this organization. They are poisoning the minds of young people everywhere. Not just in Europe, but in the United States and undoubtedly in Argentina, people are looking on these websites.
The issue is how to do it in an intelligent way, he said.
He explained that his administration’s approach has been continuously to adjust to see what works and what doesn’t.
“What has been working is the airstrikes that we’re taking on their leadership, on their infrastructure, on their financial systems. What has been working is special operators partnering with Iraqi security forces and going after leadership networks and couriers, and disrupting the connection between their bases in Raqqa and their bases in Mosul.
“We recovered — have taken away from ISIL about 40 percent of their territory. And ISIL’s leadership has been hunkered down, and we are going to continue to press on them until we have driven them out of their strongholds and until they’re destroyed. While we are doing that, we’re also extraordinarily vigilant about preventing attacks in our homeland and working with our allies to prevent attacks in places like Europe.”
At the same time, Obama acknowledged “this is difficult work.”
Meanwhile, New York police Chief Bill Bratton has also ruled out Cruz’s statement as being anti-Muslim, saying he took great offense to it. The senator “doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about,” Bratton told CBS channel. In response, Cruz dismissed the police officer as a “Democratic political henchman.”
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, said in a speech on counterterrorism at Stanford University, there are millions of peace-loving Muslims living, working, raising families, and paying taxes in this country.
“These Americans are a crucial line of defense against terrorism. They are the most likely to recognize the warning signs of radicalization before it’s too late, and the best positioned to block it.”
“We need every American community invested in this fight, not fearful and sitting on the sidelines,” she said, rejecting Cruz’s proposal.
