Obama to extremists: Chase to be relentless

Malaysian labels Islamic State ‘new evil’

President Barack Obama poses for pictures Saturday in Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, before a gala dinner for a gathering of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
President Barack Obama poses for pictures Saturday in Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, before a gala dinner for a gathering of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- President Barack Obama promised Saturday that Islamic extremists would find no haven anywhere, while the leader of Muslim-majority Malaysia branded the Islamic State group as a "new evil" that has blasphemed the religion, urging world leaders to confront it forcefully.


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President Barack Obama talks with refugee children Saturday during a tour of the Dignity for Children Foundation center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Obama also used a trip to a migrant and refugee center to reiterate the United States' role as a destination for people fleeing persecution and war.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Obama spoke separately Saturday at an Asian summit taking place against the backdrop of recent violence including the bombing of a Russian jet over Egypt, a suicide bombing in Beirut, a series of attacks in Paris, the slaying of a Malaysian hostage by militants in the Philippines and Friday's attack on a Mali hotel.

Najib said he had planned to begin his speech by talking about the achievements of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which he is the chairman.

"But the events of recent days and weeks have cast a shadow over us all," he said in remarks to open the summit. "Be assured that we stand with you against this new evil that blasphemes against the name of Islam."

"[The Islamic State and other militant groups] are terrorists and should be confronted as such, with the full force of the law," Najib said in a speech that emphasized the tolerance of Islam.

He also cautioned that a military solution alone will not be enough to defeat terrorism.

"It is the ideology propagated by these extremists that is the cause of this sadistic violence. ... We must not lose sight of the fact that the ideology itself must be exposed as the lie that it is -- and vanquished. For it is not Islamic. It cannot be."

Later, Obama spoke at a business conference on the sidelines of the summit and referred to the Mali attack that left 21 dead, including one American.

"With allies and partners, the United States will be relentless to those who target our citizens. We will continue to root out terrorist networks. We will not allow these killers to have a safe haven," Obama said.

Obama and Najib will attend a larger summit of 18 Asia-Pacific countries today. Among them are Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia, which are all members of a new U.S.-led free-trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the Obama administration had pushed hard to achieve.

"This is a prime example of America and our partners working together to shape the world we want for future generations," Obama said.

But, he said, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is more than a trade pact. It "is a long-term investment in our shared security and in universal human rights. ... When trade is done right, it can help fuel progress in other areas," he said.

Also Saturday, Obama vowed to keep America's borders open to the world's refugees "as long as I'm president," as he met with child migrants and refugees and his administration refused to yield to critics over the matter.

Most of the children at the center were members of the Rohingya minority who have fled persecution, discrimination and ethnic violence in Burma, officials said.

Malaysia is home to some 150,000 refugees from various countries. They include the Rohingya, who face discrimination from the Buddhist majority in Burma, where the government does not recognize them as citizens.

The children were representative of the faces of all the world's persecuted minority groups, the president said, adding that they must not be turned away by countries such as the United States because of what he insisted was an unfounded fear of a terrorist threat from their presence.

"They're just like our kids and they deserve support," Obama said after touring the Dignity for Children Foundation in Kuala Lumpur.

With almost 20 million refugees worldwide, countries in Europe, Asia and Africa are experiencing the worst migrant crisis since World War II, according to the United Nations. More than 4 million have fled Syria since 2011 in that country's civil war. The mass exodus has strained government resources in countries such as Turkey and Jordan, and across the European Union.

Obama's visit to the migrant center was planned long before recent terrorist attacks sparked a renewed debate over his plan to take in more than 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. The visit took on new relevance after U.S. lawmakers -- including about a third of House Democrats -- called for Obama to pause or halt the program, citing security concerns.

The White House on Friday reiterated Obama's pledge to veto legislation that would add additional vetting requirements for Syrians seeking refuge in the U.S. Obama could face a showdown over the bill, which passed the House last week with a veto-proof majority. The refugee debate has ignited the U.S. presidential campaign as well.

"We're telling the administration to step up," U.S. Rep. Martha McSally of Arizona said Friday in the weekly Republican address that focused on combating the Islamic State, or ISIS. "Take this terrorist threat seriously. The fight against ISIS is a generational conflict, and we must lead now more than ever."

After the terror attacks in Paris, House lawmakers last week passed bipartisan legislation to tighten screening for refugees seeking to enter the United States from Syria. Calls for restrictions on Syrian refugees have echoed across the political landscape, from Republican presidential hopefuls and governors and many lawmakers from the president's party.

In the president's weekly radio address, taped by Vice President Joe Biden and released Saturday morning, Biden insisted that refugees from Syria face "the most rigorous screening" of anybody entering the United States.

"First they are fingerprinted, then they undergo a thorough background check, then they are interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security," Biden said. "And after that, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Defense and the Department of State, they all have to sign off on access."

At the summit, Southeast Asian leaders today formally created a unified economic community in a diverse region far larger than the European Union or North America, with hopes of competing with China and India.

The 10 leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed a declaration establishing the ASEAN Economic Community, first envisioned in 2002.

The community is already a reality and many of its fundamentals have been applied in the region, such as removal of tariff barriers and visa restrictions.

The organization won't be fully functional until after it becomes a legal entity Dec. 31.

Information for this article was contributed by Vijay Joshi, Eileen Ng, Josh Lederman and Annabelle Liang of The Associated Press; by Toluse Olorunnipa, Angela Greiling Keane and Andrew Davis of Bloomberg News; and by Michael D. Shear of The New York Times.

A Section on 11/22/2015

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