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News > World

Obama Launches 'Domestic Terrorism' Body Targeting US Muslims

  • Obama administration announces new strategy to combat terrorism.

    Obama administration announces new strategy to combat terrorism. | Photo: Reuters

Published 8 January 2016
Opinion

The U.S. Government announced new initiatives to combat international and domestic terrorist groups.

White House officials announced Friday the launch of a new counterterrorism task force in order to combat international and domestic terror groups.

“The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice will announce the establishment of the Countering Violent Extremism Task Force, a new organization that will integrate and harmonize domestic CVE efforts here at home,” according to a White House press release.

The Obama administration announced that the newly established entity will be in charge of coordinating all of the government’s domestic counter-radicalization activities and also function as a mechanism for transmitting new ideas, grants and other resources to community groups across the country.

RELATED: Failure to Label Oregon Gunmen Terrorists Sparks Backlash

The latest announcement builds on a previous counterterrorism approach, which was launched in 2011 in order to prevent violent extremists from recruiting and radicalizing U.S. residents in Muslim communities.

The new counterterror campaign will specifically target Muslim communities in efforts to thwart the influence of propaganda promoted by the Islamic State and other Muslim extremists groups.

According to a new bipartisan congressional report more than 250 Americans have joined or attempted to fight with extremists in Syria and Iraq. The bipartisan investigation concluded that in almost 80 percent of cases, U.S. foreign fighter aspirants were influenced by online Islamic State Group propaganda.

However, according to studies by the University of Maryland Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, between 2000 and 2013 the vast majority of attacks in the homeland were carried out by non-Islamist extremists. Yet 100 percent of federal CVE efforts are aimed at Muslim communities.

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