An Important Political Figure Flirted With Honesty About the Real Problem

When most politicians speak about Islamic violence, what they say is so far from the truth, it is closer to the opposite of what's true. But what about this comment by a major world figure in politics:

"Some argue it's because of historic injustices and recent wars, or because of poverty and hardship. This argument, what I call the grievance justification, must be challenged.

"So when people say 'it's because of the involvement in the Iraq War that people are attacking the West,' we should remind them: 9/11 — the biggest loss of life of British citizens in a terrorist attack — happened before the Iraq War.

"What I call the grievance justification, must be challenged.... When they say that these are wronged Muslims getting revenge on their Western wrongdoers, let's remind them: from Kosovo to Somalia, countries like Britain have stepped in to save Muslim people from massacres — it's groups like ISIL, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram that are the ones murdering Muslims.

"Now others might say: it's because terrorists are driven to their actions by poverty. But that ignores the fact that many of these terrorists have had the full advantages of prosperous families or a Western university education.

"Now let me be clear, I am not saying these issues aren't important. But let's not delude ourselves. We could deal with all these issues — and some people in our country and elsewhere would still be drawn to Islamist extremism.

"No — we must be clear. The root cause of the threat we face is the extremist ideology itself."

Now apart from that last phrase, "extremist ideology," that's pretty good, don't you think? Can you guess who said it? The UK's Prime Minister, David Cameron. Read more about his remarks here: David Cameron Declares War on Islamic Extremism.

P.S. Here's why I have a problem with the word "extremist:" Are All Extremists Dangerous?