U.S. Vice President Biden says assimilation is key to stopping extremism

The United States should assimilate immigrants and welcome a variety of cultures to help the country avoid terrorist attacks and extremism, Vice President Joe Biden told a White House summit on combating violent extremism Tuesday.

"National security flows from a sense of community," Biden said on the opening day of the summit, "We are a nation of immigrants and our strength is that we are a melting pot."

Local officials, community leaders and religious figures on Tuesday went to the White House in Washington for talks on preventing young people from joining terrorist groups through local outreach programs.

"We haven't always gotten it right," Biden said, "But we have a lot of experience integrating communities into the American system, the American dream."

The White House wanted to use the three-day conference to tackle the urgent challenges of preventing home-grown terrorism, including the radicalization and recruitment of Americans, particularly disaffected young people.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to address a gathering at the White House Wednesday that will look at how cities across the United States are dealing with these issues. He will also deliver remarks Thursday at the State Department, where representatives of some 60 countries are scheduled to meet, with the focus on renewed global concerns, including recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen of Denmark, as well as the recruitment of thousands of foreign fighters by Islamic State and other groups to fight in Iraq and Syria. Enditem