An un-American way to tackle extremism (Opinion) - CNN.com

An un-American way to tackle extremism (Opinion) - CNN.com: A Muslim man deciding to grow a beard; a Muslim woman deciding to wear a hijab; an imam posting a controversial article on Facebook; a Muslim activist remaining seated during the national anthem; or a group of Muslim students vociferously protesting U.S. foreign policy are actually quintessentially American activities. They are expressions of free speech, religion and assembly that are protected by the Bill of Rights -- the very First Amendment, in fact, because the founding fathers recognized that such freedoms were sacrosanct and vital to a healthy democracy.

But in addition to being un-American, these programs are also ineffective.

For a start, they're theoretically flawed because they're based on overly simplistic notions of terrorist radicalization. Studies have shown that First Amendment protected activities are poor predictors of violent extremism and that that there is no universal path to radicalization. Rather, an individual's decision to turn to violent extremism is usually unforeseeable, highly individualized and not readily discernible to an observer.