.
1/23/15, "Kerry calls for more resources in anti-extremist fight, warns of Islamophobia," Reuters, Warren Strobel, Davos, Switz.
"Countries must
devote more resources to fight global extremism, U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry said on Friday, but the battle would falter if it becomes
consumed by sectarian division or Islamophobia.
Speaking against a backdrop of deadly Islamist militant attacks in France, Pakistan,
Nigeria and elsewhere, Kerry told leaders at the annual World Economic
Forum: "These kinds of actions can never be excused. And they have to be
opposed. With every fiber of our being, they have to be stopped.
"We have to take risks, we have to invest more resources," he said.
Shortly before, President Francois Hollande of France,
which is still reeling from the killing of 17 people by Islamist gunmen
in Paris two weeks ago, urged global business leaders to help fight
terrorism by cracking down on money laundering and trafficking.
Kerry
also announced he would travel on Sunday to Nigeria, Africa's most
populous country battered by an Islamist Boko Haram insurgency that has
killed thousands of people.
State
Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Kerry would meet Nigerian
President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running for re-election on Feb. 14
amid criticism over his handling of the insurgency threatening Nigeria
as a unified state.
Kerry described Islamic State militants, who have seized wide swathes of Iraq and Syria,
as "a collection of monsters". He said ultra-radical groups like
Islamic State and Boko Haram "are attempting to govern land. It’s a
first-time event".
He compared
efforts to curb the spread of extremist violence to the fight against
fascism in World War Two. "The first step is to make clear the civilized
world will not cower in the face of this violence," he said.
Kerry made no specific new proposals for how to counter the tide of violent militancy. U.S. President Barack Obama has invited allies to a Washington summit on the issue on Feb. 18.
Saying
world leaders must "keep our heads," Kerry warned: "The biggest error
that we could make would be to blame Muslims collectively for crimes not
committed by Muslims alone.
"Unless
we direct our energies in the right direction, we may very well fuel
the very fires we want to put out," he said. "There’s no room for
sectarian division, there’s no room for anti-Semitism or Islamophobia."
Image: "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledges the public after making a special address at the World
Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos January 23, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Ruben Sprich"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment