NEW AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: JESUS, THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND THE KORAN

Michael Gerson, former faith advisor to former President George W. Bush, and now a columnist with “The Washington Post,” wrote about “What Would Jesus Do?” to solve the current economic crisis.

(Read below).

But, he and the Christian groups he quoted failed to mention Jesus famous encounter with the money merchants in the temple.

The Koran mentions that and builds its economic guides on suspicion, if not condemnation, of money merchants.

Here is what Wikipedia said about the Koran and economics:

“Islam accepts markets as the basic co-coordinating mechanism of the economic system. Islamic teaching holds that the market, through perfect competition, allows consumers to obtain desired goods, producers to sell their goods, at a mutually acceptable price….

The Quran (3: 130) clearly condemns what it calls by the Arabic term “riba,” usually translated “interest”: “O, you who believe! Devour not riba, doubled and redoubled, and be careful of Allah; haply so you will prosper…

Most Islamic economic institutions advise participatory arrangements between capital and labor. The latter rule reflects the Islamic norm that the borrower must not bear all the cost of a failure…

Conventional debt arrangements are thus usually unacceptable – but conventional venture investment structures are applied even on very small scales. However, not every debt arrangement can be seen in terms of venture investment structures. For example, when a family buys a home it is not investing in a business venture… (More study in needed)”…

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NEWS: WHAT WOULD JEUSUS DO? MICHAEL GERSON, COLUMNIST, “THE WASHINGTON POST” (Excerpts):

With varied motivations, human beings tend to invoke the name of God in foxholes, in the throes of passion and in budget debates.

During the recent debt-limit showdown, Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) credited “divine inspiration” for his opposition to House Speaker John Boehner’s initial proposal. Democratic activist Donna Brazile tweeted, “Last time I checked, God is above this partisan stuff. But I believe (as a woman of faith) Jesus would be fair and support shared sacrifice”…

A group of Christian leaders called A Circle of Protection asserts, “The moral measure of the debate is how the most poor and vulnerable people fare.” “The Christian community,” its statement goes on, “has an obligation to help them be heard, to join with others to insist that programs that serve the most vulnerable in our nation and around the world are protected”…

Another group, Christians for a Sustainable Economy (CASE), offers a corrective, pointing out that the accumulation of debt and economic stagnation are also moral challenges, and noting that some well-intended social spending is ineffective. “We believe the poor of this generation and generations to come,” its statement reads, “are best served by policies that promote economic freedom and growth… Compassion is “best fulfilled through Christian charity and spiritual counseling, not government programs”…

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Social welfare, unemployment, public debt and globalization have been re-examined from the perspective of Islamic norms and values. Islamic banks have grown recently in the Muslim world but are a very small share of the global economy compared to the Western debt banking paradigm. It remains to be seen^[vague] if they will find niches – although hybrid approaches, e.g. Grameen Bank which applies classical Islamic values but uses conventional lending practices, are much lauded by some proponents of modern human development theory.

NEWS AND VIEWS

VIEWS: “WHAT IS TERRORISM?”

Anders Breivik’s crime in Norway seems appropriate to ask: “What is terrorism?” “The Washington Post” today’s editorial used words like “terrible carnage,” “tragedy” and “killer.” But the editorial insisted that Breivik “acted alone and didn’t collaborate with anyone.”

“The New York Times,” to its credit, went further and said that “individuals are, of course, responsible for their actions, but are influenced by the public debate surrounding them.

NEWS: EDITORIALS:

“THE WASHINGTON POST” EDITORIAL:

… In the hours after the bombing and shooting massacre Friday numerous commentators rushed to the conclusion prematurely that Muslim extremists were to blame. There was considerable speculation about why Norway would have been targeted: its participation in NATO’s Afghanistan mission?

Once Mr. Breivik was revealed to be a right-wing anti-Muslim extremist and self-styled crusader, the rush began to tar right-wing European political parties and “counter-jihad” Web sites in the United States with his evil.

So it seems worth underlining that, to date, there is no evidence that Mr. Breivik collaborated with anyone — and plenty that he is a deeply deranged individual…

“THE NEW YORK TIMES” EDITORIAL:

… Individuals are responsible for their actions. But they are influenced by public debate and the extent to which that debate makes ideas acceptable — or not. Even mainstream politicians in Europe, including Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France have sown doubts about the ability or willingness of Europe to absorb newcomers. Multiculturalism “has failed, utterly failed,” Mrs. Merkel said last October…

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: MURDOCH, FOX TV AND THE MUSLIMS

While watching yesterday’s British Parliament’s investigation of Rupert Murdoch and his son, I many times angrily pounded my fist on the desk because I remembered Fox TV’s coverage of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its aftermath.

Particularly “Fox & Friends,” which, after 9/11 added an additional hour to the beginning of the weekday show, and branded it as a separate program called Fox & Friends First. It was the first FNC programs to air live for the day, starting at 6:00

I remember Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade and the blond-between-them Gretchen Carlson.

I didn’t watch many shows after feeling sick of what I believe was the group’s hate of Islam and Muslims.

I remember that I, trying to calm myself, used to switch to listen to the Koran.

So, yesterday as I watched Murdoch being grilled and called “greedy,” I felt a sort of revenge, not only because his brand of journalism was sensational and conservative, but, also because of Fox News negative Muslims coverage.

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MURDOCH GRILLED IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT, CLAMIED INNOCENCE AND SORRY: “THE WASHINGTON POST” (Excerpts):

LONDON — Calling it “the most humble day” of his life, Rupert Murdoch and his son confronted angry lawmakers Tuesday, insisting they did not know the scope of phone hacking at their News of the World tabloid and apologizing for being the source of one of the worst crises in the history of British media…

On a day of reckoning for News Corp. in Britain, Rupert Murdoch, a baron of the conservative press whose media empire runs from Fox News to the saucy old tabloids of Fleet Street, put himself forward to face a nation’s fury. Murdoch repeatedly pounded his hand on a table at the select parliamentary committee hearing as he testified but appeared removed from day-to-day details of the scandal and unprepared for the almost forensic lines of questioning.

The drama in the chamber, already at a peak, took a surreal turn when a man yelled “greedy” while tossing a plate of shaving cream at the 80-year-old Murdoch, prompting his wife, Wendi Murdoch (42-year-old) to leap out of her chair and belt the attacker. The melee forced a temporary suspension of a session watched by millions on both sides of the Atlantic …

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: JEWISH LOBBY, ISALMIC LOBBY

Of course, if the Kashmiri American Council, the major – but very tiny — Kashmiri lobby in Washington, has broken the lobbying laws, its leaders should be punished.

But, the big picture should not be neglected; the lobby was established mainly to explain the injustice that has been inflicted on the Kashmiris.

In 1947 when the Indian sub-continent was divided into India and Pakistan, religion was the major factors; millions of Muslims lefts India to Pakistan and millions of Hindus went the opposite direction. The two countries fought over the mostly Muslim Kashmir, then a ceasefire line was established and the UN called for a referendum that Pakistan accepted and India refused.

For decades, the US was neutral on the issue, but, during about half-a-century of the Cold War, was a strong ally of Pakistan against socialist and pro-Moscow India.

Then came 9/11 and the so-called “war on terrorism” that was declared in 2001 by former President George W. Bush — and is continuing — and which I have come to believe is but a subtle and indirect war on Muslims (if not on Islam).

Bush established an alliance with India, and was supported – if not inspired – by what I call Washington Jewish Leaders (WJL) who have been exploiting 9/11 Muslims attacks to spoil the US relations with the Muslims.

So, Kashmir’s struggle for justice seems, in the eyes of India and the US, identified with “terrorism.”

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NEWS: PRO-PAKISTAN LOBBY LEADERS ARRESTED: “THE WASHINGTON POST” (Excerpts):

Pakistani intelligence services have secretly spent millions of dollars through a front group over the past 20 years to lobby Congress and the White House and funnel contributions to members of both parties, according to Justice Department charges unveiled Tuesday…

The center of the alleged scheme was the Kashmiri American Council and its executive director, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, who is accused in federal court documents of acting under the direct supervision of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency.

A criminal complaint filed in Alexandria against Fai and a second defendant, Zaheer Ahmad, outlines a long-running and elaborate plot in which Pakistani intelligence officials exercised de facto control over the Kashmiri council, which sponsored well-attended conferences in Washington, organized congressional trips to Kashmir and met with State Department and White House officials.

In total, the FBI estimates that the group received up to $700,000 per year from Pakistani government sources, according to the complaint. The nonprofit group reported much smaller budgets in its annual reports to the Internal Revenue Service…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: SUSAN RICE AND SUDAN’S PARTITION

In my planned book (suggested title: “Islam, the West and Me: From Madrassa to Monastery”), as I entered my fourth decade in America, there will be many references to Black Americans:

During my first decade (when I was “stranger in a strange land”), we were strangers to each other.

During my second decade, when I became an American citizen and wondered whether I would be part of Black America, our shared skin color wasn’t enough couldn’t win over deep cultural, religious and historical differences. Also, I have come to believe that Black Americans are very much pre-occupied with slavery, discrimination, the color of their skin and the N-word.

During my third decade, after 9/11 attacks, many of the Blacks seemed to understand the Arabs’ and the Muslims’ anger at the US policies, mostly because of the shared injustice that was inflicted on all of them by the West. But, some Black leaders, especially the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) seemed to have grudges against the Muslims and the Arabs. When the civil war in Sudan became part of the “war on terrorism” and of Islamophobia, some in the CBC became more antagonistic towards the Muslim Arab North.

One of them is Susan Rice, State Department’s under-secretary for Africa in Clinton administration and now, in Obama administration, ambassador to the UN. Her anti-Arab and Muslims opinions continued even after she achieved her goal: the partition of Sudan; not one word about the North in this address as South Sudan was recognized by the UN.

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NEWS: STATE DEPARTMENT: AMB. SUSAN RICE ADDRESSING THE UN ON SOUTH SUDAN (Excerpts):

… This historic and hopeful day was reached only after great suffering and almost unimaginable loss. The independence of the world’s newest country is a testament to the people of South Sudan. It is also an inspiration to all who yearn for freedom. May the memory of your own struggle, for liberty, always serve as a reminder to insist on the universal rights of all people, to remember those still in shackles, to lift up the hungry and the desperate, and to bring hope to the broken places of the world.

Your statehood is new, but your friendship is not. The bonds between the American people and the people of South Sudan go back many decades. The United States will remain a steadfast friend as South Sudan works to pursue peace, to strengthen its democracy, and provide opportunity and prosperity to all its citizens. We look forward to working alongside South Sudan as it shoulders the rights and responsibilities of a full and sovereign member of the community of nations…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: JEWISH AMBASSADOR LYMAN AND SUDAN’S PARTITION

I would like to add Ambassador Princeton Lyman, President Obama’s envoy to Sudan, to my list of “Washington Jewish Leaders” (WJL). I started the list few years ago after more than 30 years of covering Washington politics, especially foreign policy and especially the Jewish influence on policies towards Muslims and Arabs.

Few years after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, I have come to believe that former President George W. Bush’s so-called “war on terrorism” is but a subtle and indirect war against Muslims (if not Islam), and that the WJL have had a major input. Few years ago, I picked Senator Joe Lieberman as the group leader.

Two cautionary points: (a) I say “influence,” not “control”; (b) don’t use “conspiracy” or “clique”; and (c) despite differences in opinions, I applaud their commitment and hard work.

I don’t have evidence that Ambassador Lyman “conspired” to partition Sudan, but, being part of the WJL, I believe he has “influenced” the partition.

1. “Jewish World Review”:”In the early summer of 1984, Tegegne and I went together to Washington to meet with members of Congress, their staffers and senior State Department officials. One of those officials, Princeton Lyman, was brought to tears by Tegegne’s description of the persecution that Ethiopian Jews were suffering and by my insistence that, especially because of its failure to rescue Jews during the Holocaust, America’s government was now morally bound to save Ethiopian Jews… Five months later, Lyman would play a key role in Operation Moses, the massive 1984 American and Israeli rescue of Ethiopian Jews.”

2. American Jewish World Service President Ruth Messinger: “He has an enormous task particularly with negotiations occurring immediately that will shape the future of relations between Sudan and Southern Sudan.”

3. Jewish Council for Public Affairs: “We congratulate Ambassador Princeton Lyman on his appointment to serve as the new Special Envoy for Sudan, and thank President Obama for his wise choice. After the successful and peaceful election last summer, it is crucial that we not let our focus on Sudan diminish.”

4. Florida Atlantic University: “Dr. Stanford M. Lyman Renowned FAU Scholar Dies At 69. As a boy, Stanford Lyman was stunned by the power of the ethnic hatred and discrimination that ravaged his Jewish relatives in Europe… In 1988, he visited three West African nations, presenting a joint lecture with the United States ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Princeton Lyman, his younger brother.”

5. Jonathan Broder, “Salon”‘s Washington correspondent: “…: And for the first time in the State Department’s 208-year history, Jews lead the list of contenders for the six regional assistant secretary posts. According to well informed sources, they are: Mark Grossman, currently U.S. ambassador to Turkey, for assistant secretary for European affairs; Princeton Lyman, ambassador to Nigeria.”

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NEWS: STATE DEPARTMENT: TWO NEW SUDANS: PRINCETON LYMAN (Excerpts):

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: SOMALI “TERRORISTS” MIGHT HAVE READ THE KORAN

“What is Terrorism?” and “What is Islam” are my two questions in my “Silent Jihad at the White House.”

Today, “The Washington Post” published a top-front-page-and-three-pages-with-many-large-photos piece about “terrorism” among the Somali Americans in Minnesota. “The Post” didn’t bother to ask “What is Terrorism?” or “What is Islam?”

“The Post” used the US government’s definition of “terrorism” and the new thread: “domestic terrorism” which now seems to be mostly about Somali Americans. Officials and Muslim leaders were interviewed; particularly Muslim leaders who are now helping the government to “brainwash” Somali “terrorists” who had been “brainwashed” by Al-Shabab which has “links” to Al Qaeda.

The implication is that these young Americans have “links” to Al Qaeda.

Is Al-Shabab a terrorist organization? “What is terrorism?”

Thanks to Prof. David Shinn, of George Washington University, who said last week in a Congressional hearing: “There is a debate among those of us who follow Somalia closely concerning the wisdom of the international community, including the United States, engaging al-Shabaab in a dialogue.”

My second point: “What is Islam?” The Koran, clearly and repeatedly, calls upon Muslims to fight against injustice, scarifying with their time, money, family and – best of all – lives.

Could it be that these Somali Americans read the Koran, and were not “brainwashed”?

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NEWS: LURE OF TERRORISM IN MINNESOTA:”WASHINGON POST” (Excerpts):

MINNEAPOLIS —… Abdirizak Bihi is the founder, director and sole employee of a community-based counterterrorism program. (But, he wondered whether the problem had grown too big for him. “More kids become terrorists, more families are broken, and nothing ever changes,” he said…

There have been 51 homegrown jihadist plots or attacks in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, according to law enforcement reports, and their frequency is increasing. Nowhere else is the problem of radicalization so concentrated as in Bihi’s section of downtown Minneapolis, where about 10,000 Somali immigrants live in a collection of faded apartment towers bordering the freeway…

At least 25 young men have disappeared from here to fight for al-Shabab in the past three years, and dozens more are being investigated on suspicion of recruiting or fundraising on behalf of the terrorist organization…

Many mosques, elected officials and even law enforcement agencies have hesitated to address the radicalization of a small percentage of American Muslims, because the topic itself is so divisive.

The focus on homegrown jihad is considered:

(a)
the next front in the war on terrorism, or

(b)
an Islamophobic witch hunt sure to create more ill will.

“There are no answers here, only more questions,” Bihi said. “Sometimes this work feels hopeless, like trying to drain the ocean”…

Despite four congressional hearings and dozens of meetings, the U.S. government has yet to reach a consensus on how, exactly, counter-radicalization should work:

(a)Some Democrats argue that focusing on Muslim extremism alone is discriminatory.

(b)Some Republicans argue that the country’s security leaves no room for political correctness…

The few de-radicalization programs that exist are untested and disparate:

(a)
Mohamed Elibiary, a self-described “master of the last-ditch save” from Texas who helps law enforcement agencies de-radicalize known extremists.

(b)
Imad Hamad, who runs a monthly program in Dearborn, Mich., that brings together imams and FBI agents.

(c)
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, which sponsors trips for teenagers to Hollywood so they can learn about a quintessentially American place often demonized by Islamist groups…

The FBI describes a “vulnerable community”: More than half of households are headed by single mothers, 70 percent of families live in poverty and almost 25 percent of adults are unemployed…

In Bihi’s e-mail, there was one piece of information — enough by itself to send a chill down his spine and remind him, he said, that “a few radicals are hijacking and distorting” his beloved faith. The suicide bomber’s work had been summarized in two words: “Employer: Islam.”

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: CHEERS FOR VIET CONG, CHEERS FOR TALIBAN

About half a century ago, as a young journalist with “Alsahafa” Arabic daily newspaper in Sudan, I, almost daily and for many years, covered the Vietnam War, and especially the US military intervention in South Vietnam, its bombardment of North Vietnam and its war against the Viet Cong rebels (who, at the end, won, expelled the US and united North and South Vietnam).

I wasn’t a Communist, a socialist, a progressive or a leftist – and never was – but I was strongly supporting the Viet Cong. The US was the aggressor and its excuse of the “domino theory” has been proven wrong. Last week, the US and Vietnam navies conducted a joint exercise, an indirect message to China. (During the Vietnam War, China was the main supporter and supplier of the Vietnamese Communists).

So, now, after 10 years of fighting Islamist Taliban, the US decided to negotiate with them.

(Read below).

I am not an Islamist, a Jihadist, a Bin Laden-supporter or a Caliphate-believer – and never was – but I strongly support Taliban.

The US is the aggressor and its excuse of looking for Bin Laden has been proven wrong. Bin Laden was in Pakistan for more than five years, until the US killed him two months ago.

That the US didn’t earlier know his whereabouts shouldn’t be an excuse. Shouldn’t be like former President George W. Bush’s excuse: true, we didn’t find WMD after we invaded Iraq, but the CIA had said there were; it is not my fault.

Obama shouldn’t say: true, for five years we killed many Muslims as we were looking for Bin Laden, but the CIA didn’t know where he actually was; it is not my fault.

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NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: TALIBAN LEADER: “NO REGRET”

KABU: … At 60, Maulvi Qalamuddin still wears the thick black beard and imposing turban that defined him during his tenure as deputy minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice. But his rhetoric has mellowed since Taliban rule ended in 2001, and last year he was named by President Hamid Karzai, along with five other former Taliban officials, to the High Peace Council set up to negotiate with the insurgency…

“All human beings need peace, even if they were once enemies,” the former minister said during an interview this week, pouring tea for visitors at his modest home in the capital.

Qalamuddin’s rehabilitation has been neither swift nor smooth. He is more controversial than the handful of other ex-Taliban officials to whom the Afghan administration has reached out, including former U.N. envoy Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, former ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef and former foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil …

Even today, Qalamuddin is defiantly unrepentant… “We carried out our duties under the laws of the government and according to sharia,” he said. “What I did, I do not regret at all. If some people say it was cruel, I object. It was like night and day compared to the new generation of Taliban. They are blowing up their fellow Muslims and cutting off their heads”…

Soraya Parlika, a women’s rights activist in Kabul, ran secret academic classes for girls during the Taliban era, said: “The Taliban were strict, but under them there were no rockets, no robbery and no rapes. When we first heard they were coming, we were all so happy and excited. It wasn’t until later that they became more repressive and misinterpreted Islam as a religion of violence.”

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: NETANYAHU’S SON INSULTS ISLAM; WHAT IS NEW?

Thanks to the US Supreme Court, I have come to accept – reluctantly though — that freedom of expression includes freedom to verbally insult others, their opinions and even their religions.

The reluctance is most probably due to my background: I lived in a very conservative Muslim village (on the Nile River in northern Sudan, south of the borders with Egypt) from my birth until I went to high school. It was a blasphemy to just say “God” without adding “subhanahu wa ta’ala” (the Powerful and the Uppermost) and to say “Prophet Mohammad” without adding “salla Allahu alaihi was salam” (God’s prayer and peace upon him).

But, I have come a long way. I now believe that freedom, as defined by the US Constitution, allows people (even the “infidels”) to insult my God, my Islam and my Prophet.

Why am I saying that?

Because I just read that Yair, son of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had been insulting Islam and Muslims in the Internet.

(Read below).

I am angry not because of his insults, but because he, a military official, and his father are part of Israel’s expansionist policy and its occupation of Muslim lands and its subjugation of Muslims.

It was obvious that the father was behind the son’s decision to delete the insults within two hours after “Haaretz,” the Israeli newspaper that first revealed the insults, called the Prime Minister office seeking comments.

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NEWS: “HAARETZ” (ISRAEL)”: ISRALE’S PRIME MINISTER’S SON DERISIVE COMMENTS ON ARABS, MUSLIMS

JERUSALEM — The Israeli prime minister’s 19-year-old son — a military spokesman — posted derisive comments about Arabs and Muslims on his Facebook page, drawing a slap on the wrist from his superiors and focusing new attention on the controversial first family…

Earlier this year, Yair Netanyahu posted that Muslims “celebrate hate and death.” In the same post, written after Palestinian assailants entered a West Bank settlement and stabbed five members of an Israeli family to death, he wrote that “terror has a religion and it is Islam”…

Yair Netanyahu also wrote that he hoped “there would never be” a Palestinian state, and two years prior, he ran a Facebook group of 23 people that had called for a boycott of Arab businesses and products…

The comments in question were removed from the Facebook page within two hours of “Haaretz” requested a response from the prime minister’s office.

Israel’s military has suffered a series of online embarrassments.

Soldiers have posted pictures on Facebook of themselves mistreating detained Palestinians and dancing on patrol. In one case, the military had to cancel an operation after a soldier revealed plans on his Facebook page…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: GOOGLE’S ANTI-MUSLIMS PROJECT

I am a little suspicious about Google’s new adventure to tackle “violent extremism.” I am not convinced by Google’s definition that includes former criminals and neo-Nazis. I believe Google’s project is another attempt to taint Islam and Muslims, and is influenced by Washington Jewish Leaders (WJL; my description and initials).

As I wrote many times before, I have become interested in the WJL (most prominent: Sen. Joe Liebermann) few years ago, after I became convinced that: (a) the so-called “war on terrorism” is but a subtle and indirect war on Muslims, if not on Islam; and (b) the US policy towards the Muslim countries have been greatly influenced (but not controlled) by the WJL.

I don’t criticize the WJL because of their dedication to their causes, skill to organize and ability to finance themselves; I criticized them because of their support of Israel’s expansionist policies.

Jared Cohen, one of the WJL and head of the Google’s project, just wrote an anti-Muslims book: “Children of Jihad.” Jane Rosenthal, one of Cohen’s advisers, is a New York Jewish leader.

Of course, Google’s two founders are Jewish. But, that is less important than for Google to be fair to the Muslims: Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers are occupying the West bank by force. Isn’t that “violent extremism”?

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NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: GOOGLE IDEAS GATHER FORMER EXTREMISTS

Technology giant Google, having conquered the Internet and the world around it, is taking on a new challenge: violent extremism.

The company, through its eight-month-old think tank, Google Ideas, is paying for 80 former Muslim extremists, neo-Nazis, U.S. gang members and other former radicals to gather in Dublin this weekend to explore how technology can play a role in de-radicalization efforts around the globe…

“We are trying to reframe issues like radicalization and see how we can apply technology to it,” said Jared Cohen, the 29-year-old former State Department adviser who now heads the project…

Google Ideas may be setting its sights too high, said Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “You’ll never make a hard-core jihadi into a Jeffersonian democrat — it’s just not going to happen,” he said. He also noted that while there may be common threads to why individuals join extremists groups, the remedies to that problem are more likely to be “culturally, and even country, specific”…

Officials at Google express little concern that their efforts are overly ambitious or will tread in others’ territory…

Cohen also turned to the Tribeca Film Festival, which was founded to help bring people back to the lower Manhattan neighborhood after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the festival, is making a film about de-radicalization that will draw on the work coming out of the conference. “You have to create deeper opportunities for involvement,” she said.

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