Anti-extremism efforts falter 5 years after Boston bombing
BOSTON — Five years after two brothers who had been living in America for about a decade bombed the Boston Marathon, federally funded community programs to prevent attacks by homegrown extremists are barely underway and face an uncertain future.
Those projects, which grew out of a strategy developed during the Obama administration, are aimed at steering young people away from extremism.
But they have been hobbled almost from the start by suspicion and mistrust among Muslims, who complain they are being singled out. And it’s unclear whether the strategy will continue to be funded under the Trump administration.
In Massachusetts, the Somali Community and Cultural Association abruptly withdrew from a nearly $500,000 program with Boston police and two other organizations just as the work was beginning in earnest late last year. Another Somali group has since stepped in to take its place.