WASHINGTON
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that despite the goal of terror groups being to divide people based on their religious or ethnic origins, unity against terrorism had in fact prevailed.
"Terrorists want to drive us apart, but in fact, their actions have had the opposite effect: They’re bringing us together," Kerry said at a press conference with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini in Washington.
Mogherini, calling the recent Paris attacks, France's 9/11, also underscored the need for a united position against terrorism.
"Victims of the attack in Paris were not only called Louis or Charlie or Anne; there was an Ahmed that was killed by other people that were having names of the same roots, which means that this is a common fight," she said.
Still, the rise of extremism in Europe and the failure to integrate certain minorities has drawn attention.
U.S. President Barack Obama during a press conference last week with British Prime Minister David Cameron said that one of the greatest dangers that Europe faced in terms of terrorist attack might come from the lack of integration of the Muslim community into the European society.
The advantage of the U.S. is to have successfully integrated its Muslim population who considers itself fully American, Obama added.
"We would be wrong if we were to look at that as an issue of minorities-majorities," Mogherini responded Wednesday. "These are violent acts that were targeting people, regardless of their names, ethnic and religious background."
Kerry then referred to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, saying the U.S. had made progress with minorities since that period but still had much to do.
"What was won in 1965 still has to be fully embraced and implemented here," he said. "We’ve seen our own struggles in some communities and great debates about race in America in the last year," Kerry added, referring to the incidents related to Ferguson after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white Ferguson police officer in August 2014.
