In an L.A. Times editorial and a speech given at a three-day White House Summit focusing on Countering Violent extremism, U.S. President Barack Obama declared that the effort is "a battle for hearts and minds," of the Muslim world. Obama maintained in the editorial: "Groups like al-Qaida and ISIS promote a twisted interpretation of religion that is rejected by the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims." Furthermore, he strongly asserted: "We are not at war with Islam, we are at war with those who have perverted Islam," which generated an avalanche of negative responses from the right and ignited a renewed debate on how to frame the "war on terrorism." In making this distinction, Obama and conference participants sought to address the success of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and before it, al-Qaida, in recruiting Muslims into their ranks by denying them a central legitimizing claim of acting in defense of Islam. In addition to this framing, Obama made explicit connection between social, political, economic and human rights conditions and the rising support for terrorist groups, which likewise generated opposition. Poverty, human rights violations, corruption and lack of opportunity do provide fertile grounds to recruit foot soldiers to terrorist networks, but a number of other factors are at play and must be part of the overall conversation.Peter Bergen, a CNN national security analyst, called the countering violent extremism's "root causes" arguments highlighted by Obama and the conference, nonsense, while arguing with "statistical evidence" for an explicit link between Islamic text and terrorism. I am in agreement with Bergentarget="_blank"'>