Youth can counter extremism with culture, hope

2007-12-14

Head of the National Centre for Strategic Studies in Rabat, Mohamed Benhamou, talks to Magharebia about the role of Moroccan youth in building their future and countering extremism.

By Mawassi Lahcen for Magharebia in Casablanca – 14/12/07

[Mawassi Lahcen] "We can't respond to the expectations, needs and aspirations of youth without the youth themselves," says Mohamed Benhamou, head of the National Centre for Strategic Studies in Rabat.

Head of the National Centre for Strategic Studies in Rabat Mohamed Benhamou spoke with Magharebia about the role of youth, culture and society in combating the appeal of extremism. Benhamou said youth today lack confidence in themselves and their society and are insufficiently involved in public life. He suggested international partnerships, economic development and greater youth involvement to create an environment capable of stopping extremism and terrorism.

Magharebia: When we talk about the realities of young people in our country, we hear not only about their negativism, lack of participation and indifference to public affairs, but also of the increasing risk of their developing links to terrorism and extremism. How do you diagnose this regrettable reality?

Mohamed Benhamou: These matters are not restricted to Moroccan society alone. Rather, all contemporary societies experience such phenomena in varying degrees based on the peculiarities of each society.

For the young men in our region, the future is no longer clear, whether in terms of finding a job, starting a family or securing a decent living. Because of this, there is a major lack of social involvement and an absence of youth involvement in institutions, whether in terms of political parties or civil society organisations.

Even the role of education within the family and school, upon which we depend to play an essential role in social integration and in instilling the values of consensus and coexistence, and through them, the values of citizenship and democracy, has been restricted to a great extent by the difficulty of life. This strips education of the important place it deserves.

This lack of involvement perpetuates youths' abstention from participation in public life and in the affairs of their society.

Confidence and hope are essential for youth; confidence in oneself, confidence in the country where they live, confidence and hope in the future and in society. In the absence of this confidence and this hope, youth are put in a weak position, psychologically, intellectually, culturally or in material, economic and social aspects.

Magharebia: Would you say that lack of confidence is the door through which extremism and terrorism enter?

Benhamou: The issue should not be restricted to religious extremism alone. Youth today are experiencing several shocks that make them undergo a stage of self-searching. We have to deliver the youth from this tunnel and out of the state of disorientation in which they live. The thing that we should fear the most is that the youth fall into a crisis of identity. They can go through the experience of self-searching in a healthy and positive way, in which they form and build themselves, but the crisis of identity can also be a door for all forms of extremism. The issue at hand is: how can youth live in a state of peace and co-existence with their national identity and at the same time be involved in the modern world with its global values?

Magharebia: How can we protect the youth and boost their immunity against extremism?

Benhamou: I think we must reconsider the mechanism of communication between the state and society. We can't respond to the expectations, needs and aspirations of youth without the youth themselves.

What we need to do is to see with the youth what we can do together. What we need today is to reinstate the role of education in instilling the values of consensus, co-existence, citizenship, democracy, participation and responsibility. In this way, we will be able to turn these young people into positive, effective citizens who contribute to the building of their countries.

Our young people today live in a state of anticipation. This anticipation can't in any way serve the interests of young people or the interests of their country. The future doesn't just wait; it has to be built. What our young people need today is a feeling of peace with themselves, confidence in the future, and a feeling that this future can be built only here and only with them.

Magharebia: How much has Morocco been able to contain and control religious extremism?

Benhamou: I think Morocco is about to do just that. We are faced with a social phenomenon that requires a comprehensive solution in order to stop. Before religious extremism, our region knew leftist ideological extremism, whether Marxist or Leninist or otherwise. This extremism was a social phenomenon with a political expression. Today, we are faced with a social phenomenon that is represented in religious extremism. However, this phenomenon has not yet fully turned into a political phenomenon. I think it will gradually disappear. But we have to work hard towards that end, and we certainly need to create a suitable environment for stopping it. If such an environment is not created via culture, media, a suitable economic-political response, and the reduction of social fragility, we won't be able to stop it.

Magharebia: Is the security approach effective in confronting extremism?

Benhamou: The security approach alone is not sufficient. The security side can manage the results and consequences of the phenomenon, and may pre-empt some of its causes. However, I think that the response today must be focused on the causes rather than the results. The causes are multiple. However, economic and social fragility is one of the most important causes. The terrorist phenomenon is an external, trans-national phenomenon, and it needs answers not only from us. The issues of security and stability are not restricted to Morocco alone, but are of concern to all the countries in the region, and even European countries. They are also of concern to the Americans. No one has an interest in the instability or fragility of a nearby, stable country. We live in a continent that has been, unfortunately, torn by civil war, where many countries have collapsed. We live in an area that has been invaded by extremist and terrorist groups on the one hand, and by organized international crime in the field of drug trafficking, secret immigration and smuggling of light weapons, on the other hand. We are thus living in a stage of interconnection among criminal gangs and terrorist groups. Solutions must be comprehensive, and they can't be implemented except through international partnerships in the framework of respect for the sovereignty of states, respect of their choices, and consultations among all the countries concerned. I think this partnership can produce a Marshal-like plan for economic and social development.

Work that is done today in Morocco will bear fruit in the long run, but the patience of society has limits. Therefore, any support in this field would accelerate the results, and would reduce the chance of losing patience.

Magharebia: How do you see the future of Morocco, with its numerous open reforms?

Benhamou: I think that the future is being prepared in a good way, and confidence is starting to be gradually established. Morocco is characterized by its smooth transition from the democratic transition stage to the democratic consolidation stage. Now, with regular elections, the political regime's openness to the democratic game and developments in the media, we can say that there is a generally conducive environment. We have to support this environment with robust social and economic conditions.

We know that extremist ideology gains ground when the targeted parties, the young people, are in a shaky, unstable economic, social and psychological condition. When young people are in a state of need, they become easy prey. Morocco is doing a lot, but we can't just expect the state to do everything.