Preventing violent extremism in the younger generation
In July 2010, Kampala the capital city of
Uganda witnessed attacks of suicide bombings carried out against innocent
crowds watching the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final match at two
locations. The attacks which left 74 dead and 71 injured still marks a big scar
in the hearts of the Ugandans. Al-Shabaab, an Islamist
militia based in Somalia
that has ties to Al-Qaeda,claimed responsibility for the blasts in retaliation
to Ugandan support for AMISOM. This among others have been one of
the demonstrations/ indicators of raising extremism.
Scholars have defined Violent Extremism as the act of supporting or engaging in
ideologically motivated or justified violence to further social, economic,
religious and political objectives .The continent has witnessed some extremist
movements such as the ISIS, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Shabab among others,
which have claimed a lot of people’s lives. Surprisingly, studies made have
shown that the seemingly “innocent” youth are most involved in this activity.
In my quest for knowledge, I sought to understand what “wrong” lies there with
this particular category of people. My pointers led me to begin from their
family life or their upbringing;
An outstanding and fundamental finding
made by Researchers among other causes of this vice, points to the fact that
Kids who are abused, beaten up, abandoned, bullied and otherwise mistreated by
their fathers or by the hostile world are likely to blow themselves up as
suicide bombers or begin training to defend their races from “outsiders by
illegitimate. Some want to restore their manhood and it is through their
participation in these extremist movements that they see an opportunity to
retrieve the sense of masculinity that has been stolen from them by
illegitimate poseurs and their government. And to make matters worse are the
increased unemployment levels that leaves the youths vulnerable to many risks
including recruitment to violent extremism in such a way that; they become idol
and discontented with the current regime for not creating jobs and to add salt
to the wound comes the extremist groups that promise them huge incomes so as to
solve their problems.
Given this backdrop, I attempt to discuss my
thoughts towards remedying this fundamental challenge from its infancy level
and within our existing institutional framework. To begin with, I suggest all
schools and professional colleges need to have staff in charge of social work
and prevention of deviant behavior, whose roles among others should
include helping young people to cope with troubles, education and
individual correction, keeping in touch with these young people`s family
and organizing social events. This should be accompanied with Schools having
special programs for the prevention of extremism in addition to Teachers and
social workers receiving training to prevent violence and extremism.
Another key area to look in is strengthening
local commissions for Minors and Protection of their Rights .These commissions
need to work on early identification of minors and families at risk of deviant
behavior to assist them in solving social and economic problems. These Social
workers need to organize for young people’s free time for instance, placing
them in sports or in holiday camps, placing adolescents with strong antisocial
behavior in schools for special care and ensuring that youths have a voice
within their families among other roles if we are to remedy this challenge.
The police sub departments for juveniles,
responsible for working with minors who violate the law are other areas that we
need to focus our lenses on. These officers are usually well trained with
minimum degree in pedagogy, social work or justice. These uniformed officers
also often have the ability to identify local youth gangs; detect young people
with anti-social behavior on the streets and look after teenagers from families
at risk. We can leverage this department in the police units to the benefit of
addressing this challenge.
We have many community organizations lately
that disguise themselves to be very busy working and advocating for youth
issues. These organizations can be of better organizing for teenagers’ free
time to train them to develop social adaptation and social perception. Research
finds that teenagers who avoid dealing with police and teachers are more likely
to share a common language with the young volunteers at these
organizations.
I cannot conclude my piece without touching
and emphasizing faith based approach. “Religion” if miss interpreted or
misunderstood can either be a remedy or escalator to this challenge. This has
been very common in the Islamic religion, where some groups have resorted to
radical teachings that promote this vice. I therefore encourage my fellow
youths to ensure that they connect to religious institution with the right
teachings and interpretation of the holy books. I also recommend, in
order to addressing the already deformed perception of some religious groups as
escalators of this vice, we need to place campaign programs with the aim of
changing how people perceive muslims asjihadists. allow me remind us that we
the youths are a very creative and energetic class of people, and if our
potential is strategically geared towards sustainable peace building, then
violent extremism will become history.
Scholars have defined Violent Extremism as the act of supporting or engaging in ideologically motivated or justified violence to further social, economic, religious and political objectives .The continent has witnessed some extremist movements such as the ISIS, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Shabab among others, which have claimed a lot of people’s lives. Surprisingly, studies made have shown that the seemingly “innocent” youth are most involved in this activity. In my quest for knowledge, I sought to understand what “wrong” lies there with this particular category of people. My pointers led me to begin from their family life or their upbringing;
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