UK's Cameron: Europe must wake up on extremism

President Barack Obama needs to take a lesson from the British prime minister.

From David Stringer of The Associated Press on Feb. 5:

MUNICH (AP) - Europe must stamp out intolerance of Western values within its own Muslim communities and far-right groups if it is to defeat the roots of terrorism, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday.

Cameron told the annual Munich Security Conference that European governments have been too tolerant of some sectors of society that publicly oppose democracy or reject equal rights for all.

He said Britain had found that many convicted terrorists had initially been influenced by so-called "nonviolent extremists" -- people who aren't involved in encouraging plots, but denounce Western politics and culture -- before going on to carry out violence.

"We won't defeat terrorism simply by the actions we take outside our borders. Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries," Cameron told the conference.

Both Britain and Germany have had noisy domestic debates about the impact of immigration, and the difficulties of integrating some religious communities, or those who struggle with the language of their new home.

In an attack on Britain's previous government, Cameron said authorities there had been too hesitant to intervene when some sectors of society espoused abhorrent views.

"We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values," Cameron said. "We have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream."

Cameron said a culture of tolerance had allowed both Islamic extremists, and far-right extremists, to build support for their causes. "We've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them," he said.

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