According to Alan Johnson Obama is right on some things and has underestimated other issues that lead to radicalization. Johnson also proposes that it is not just government that radicalizes, but that family and community also matter.
The battle of ideas against radical political Islamism of the kind that influenced the Tsarnaev brothers is tough for three reasons. First, we are talking about a systemof ideas, an ideology, which is notoriously difficult for the neophyte to contest. Second, these are sacralized systems of ideas, ideologies upon which lingers the whiff of incense, and these are near-impossible for a non-expert to critique. Third, there are some points of support in the wider intellectual culture—not for terrorism, but for an inchoate negativism in the form of anti-Americanism, anti-Westernism, and conspiratorialism. The Islamist recruiters know how to surf that wave, believe me.
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