Cameron said: “Let’s never lose sight of the real enemy here, which is the poisonous narrative that is perverting Islam, that is what we have to focus on.”
Sadly, no one asked how one fights a narrative. Even more sadly, perhaps, Cameron’s first time at bat during the briefing he referred to the “scourge” currently facing world leaders as “a very serious, Islamist, extremist terrorist threat in Europe, in America and across the world.
But over the course of the hour long meeting, with cues from the American leader, the British leader understood how it is he was supposed to label the threat.
So, the answer to Garrett’s question appears to be that at least the British Prime Minister arrived at his turning point during the press briefing with President Obama. Cameron learned never to couple Islamic and extremism or terrorism or anything else negative. Instead, the big threat is a narrative that is attempting to make Islam look bad, and that is what we need to fight.