The United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, has urged the global community to continue to defy extremists attempts to use religious division as a tool for terrorism.
Addressing a gathering at the World Economic Forum on Friday, Mr Kerry stressed the need for people and nations to come together and defeat the terrorists whom he said were trying to drive people apart.
Coalition To Counter ISIS
He spoke of how people around the world had defied extremists’ attempts to exploit religious divisions, commending efforts by nations, groups, religious bodies and individuals to promote religious unity.
“Governments in Niger and Chad are helping Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. The African Union is coordinating with Somalia to oppose al-Shabaab and the international coalition to counter Daesh [ISIS] now has 65 members and is making steady gains. That coalition is something that the world has not seen before. Its members are drawn from every corner of the globe and they are engaging along multiple lines of efforts.
“Some are training and equipping Iraqi Armed Forces, some are blocking Daeshes money, some are countering terrorist propaganda… All are trying to stop the recruitment of foreign fighters and much of the leadership within the coalition has come from the Arab states because no one knows better than them.
“The truth is that for every act of terrorism, there are multitude of efforts to promote inter-religious prospect imperialism.
“In Kenya, an organisation called Sisters Without Borders, is striving to prevent radicalisation of young people in the Central African Republic.
“In Nigeria, Christian and Muslim leaders have joined ranks to ease sectarian tensions.
“In Norway, more than a thousand Muslims formed a human chain around the synagogue to condemn extremists’ threats against Jews.
“In London, orthodox Jews formed street patrols to shield Muslim neighbours from hit grounds,” the US Secretary of State said.
Resistant To Intimidation
He further pointed out that from country after country, citizens of all backgrounds have responded to deadly attacks by showing resistant to intimidation.
“We will not be split apart and we will not be provoked into abandoning our values.
“We must win the campaign against extremism.
“We should neither resign ourselves to a world where today’s violence and conflict are seen as the new normal nor over-react and “define our adversaries so broadly” that our actions backfire,” he stressed.
He also called for an end to the war in Syria, saying that “nothing would do more to terminate Daesh [ISIS] than an end to the war in Syria. We’ve taken important first steps. Ending the war was a priority for every government in the region, no matter how much they disagreed”.
