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It’s official: The U.S. is facing a rising threat from homegrown extremism. The LA Times, quoting Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, reports

"We've seen an increased number of arrests here in the U.S. of individuals suspected of plotting terrorist attacks, or supporting terror groups abroad such as Al Qaeda… Home-based terrorism is here. And, like violent extremism abroad, it will be part of the threat picture that we must now confront."

The story does not state whether or not Napolitano has assessed a source to the rising threat, or whether she believes it to be a general crisis which cannot be attributed to any particular groups or ideological motivations.

A number of highly publicized recent cases have been tied directly or circumstantially to Islamist extremism.

"People [are] focused on the idea that we're different, we're better at integrating Muslims than Europe is," said Zeyno Baran, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington. "But there's radicalization -- especially among converts [and] newcomers, such as the Somali case shows. I think young U.S. Muslims today are as prone to radicalization as Muslims in Europe."

If the rising threat is tied to Islamist extremism, only by engaging in a direct dialogue on the issue will solutions to this challenge be found.

By ignoring root causes, at most we can diminish the risk of attacks and do damage control afterwards; but we will not solve the problem.

You can read the entire L.A. Times article here