Young Arabs express the same concern over the rise of the Islamic State (IS) as young people do elsewhere, the annual Arab Youth Survey reveals. For the second year in a row, the “rise of” IS militants is perceived as the main problem facing the region, with four in every five young people interviewed saying they were more concerned about it than other problems. Its public appeal may have also decreased slightly, findings in the survey suggest.
About 50% of the 3,500 Arab men and women questioned in the 18 to 24 year age group from 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) considered the rise of IS to be today’s biggest obstacle, an increase from last year’s 37% of people who thought it was the region’s main problem. Their other main concerns were the broader threat of terrorism, unemployment, civil unrest, and the rising cost of living. The survey was carried out in about six weeks during the first two months of this year.
Almost 4 in 5 of the young Arabs in the survey ruled out supporting the group, even if IS stopped using so much violence, a drop from 2015 when the figure for the same question was 19%. “The majority of Arab youth reject IS because they are aware of the atrocities,” argued Tunisian activist, Lina Ben Mhenni, who works on youth issues. “They also understood that this organization is taking advantage of the despair of young people and their ignorance.” Most young people also believed the group would fail in its self-professed aim of establishing a geographically defined Islamic State, or caliphate.
At about 29%, MENA has some of the world’s highest youth unemployment rates, and about 24% of interviewees believed the lack of jobs and opportunities to be the main explanation for why people joined the militant terrorist group. But, using the Arabic colloquialism for IS, slightly more (25%) interviewees stated: “I don’t know why anybody would want to join Daesh.” Second to unemployment was a belief that people joined IS because they thought its interpretation of Islam superior to other interpretations.
“Some young people are desperate because the situation has worsened for them,” argued Ben Mhenni. “They became fragile, they feel that they are marginalized, and they became easy targets for the recruiters of the terrorist organizations.” Interviewees also believed religious tensions between Sunni and Shia were contributing toward IS recruitment, as well as tensions with other religions in the region. The rise of secular, Western values is seen as another factor that, ironically, ends up fueling IS recruitment.
Egypt is the only country in the MENA region where young people still believe that the Arab world is better as a result of the Arab Spring.
“Many people in the region may reject Daesh due to its extreme tactics, but the issue remains that the group exploits existing problems,” commented Hassan Hassan, resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, on the result of the survey. “It did not simply invent the problems the respondents identified as factors.”
The survey also examined youth perceptions regarding other factors that affect daily life. ”Today’s Arab youth are tomorrow’s leaders, business owners, workers and consumers, and the information in this survey helps all of us to reach and understand this group better,” stated Donald A. Baer, Worldwide Chair and CEO of the PR agency, Asda’a Burson-Marsteller, which is undertaking the Arab Youth Survey for the 8th year running. Its aim is to explore attitudes among the close to 200 million people below the age of 25—an estimated 60% of the Arab population—in order to be able to present evidence-based understandings into the thoughts of Arab youth and, by doing so, provide public and private sector organizations with data and analysis to inform their decision-making and policy formation processes.
For the fifth year in a row, young Arabs consider the United Arab Emirates top of the list of the countries they would want to live in, followed by the United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
Media consumption was also monitored, and indicates that more young Arabs are getting their news online than from television or print. “The Arab Youth Survey has shown for some time the growing importance young people in the MENA region attach to social media,” explained Damian Radcliffe, Professor in Journalism at the University of Oregon. “If media companies, businesses and governments in the region are not already embracing social media to reach young people, then the new survey makes a very compelling case for them to do so.” The data showed 32% of young Arabs reading news online daily, 29% watching television news channels daily, and only 7% reading newspapers on a daily basis. “For newspaper publishers, it made for pretty grim reading,” added Radcliffe.
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“Everybody gives up a little freedom for a temporary period of time,” argued one member of the winning debate team, 17-year-old Lina Boufla, who was supporting the motion. This could, for example, include a curfew—not going out at night, she explained. “We need it in Tunisia, we are dying from terrorism,” she said.
Seventeen year-old Boufla, however, continued to argue the opposite—that allowing the government to limit citizens’ freedom, as a short-term solution only, was something civil society needed to back for now. To her, it was necessary for addressing extremism at its roots, where youth were key. “We need to listen to each other,” she concluded.
These different opinions were voiced during a three-day debating competition hosted by Young Arab Voices, during which 80 young leaders debated topics related to extremism, including censorship and religious schools. The World Bank and British Council organised the competition. “The voice of young people needs to be heard,” said the British Council’s Tunisia director, Nigel Bellingham.
Listening to other people’s views matters
But debating is about more than voicing one opinion: Boufla explained that harmony was the secret of her team’s success, “We complement and support each other.” She has been part of a debate club for three years. It was something different—something she had never experienced before. “It changed my life,” she said. “Words matter,” she said, and described how when she reads a text or a statement now, she thinks about it more critically before accepting it.
“These people will be our leaders of tomorrow,” argued Moez Dhahri, a teacher and debating trainer who was part of the event’s motions committee. The motions were chosen from challenging, relevant topics, and varied from addressing the conflicts in Syria or Libya to domestic and local issues relating to, for example, Tunisia’s education system or local elections. Dhahri is himself from southern Tunisia, the more marginalised area of the country where, he argued, the need for debate schools is even greater because of the lack of other things for young people to do. His goal is to establish one debate club in each school.
Program aims to involve 1 million young people in debating
In addition, the aim of the debate program is to reach 1 million debaters in MENA. Since its start in 2011, the debating program has reached a total of 100,000 young people in MENA. In 2015, 380 Young Arab Voices debates were held, involving 4,000 debaters and 130 training sessions. The concept is built on the assumption that debating and critical thinking are central to strengthening people’s resilience to radicalisation and extremist narratives.
So how is critical thinking taught? According to 25 year-old Young Arab Voices Tunisia trainer, Nesrine Ben Brahim, it’s about putting a person in a position they don’t feel comfortable in—in someone else’s shoes. “It makes you think,” she said, “And it disciplines you to listen to others.”
To Ben Brahim, dialogue and debates will increase understanding for other people and make young people more tolerant. “Debating is not primarily about expressing your own views but about understanding others,” she said. “And that’s much more challenging.” In her opinion it’s a constructive and long-term way to fight extremism. She can only take her personal experience as an example. Debating has had a huge impact on her life, which contributed to her decision to finish a Masters’ degree in public policy.
Seventeen-year-old Yacine Montacer agrees: “Debating helps you become creative.” He established a debate club two years ago at his high school, the Gabes Pioneer School in Tunis. He argued that debating had not only made him a better public speaker, but a leader. “It has also taught me to think for myself.”
The debate show has proven popular among Montacer’s 600 or so schoolmates. Weekly sessions have an attendance of about 20 students divided into two groups to debate topics picked from international politics or domestic issues. Participants need to research the topics, improving the student’s research skills. “It also teaches the students to think for themselves and think freely,” said Montacer. “There is no other environment that provides you with this type of space in the Tunisian educational system.”
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Libyan soldiers stop a car at a checkpoint in Wadi Bey, west of the city of Sirte, which is held by Islamic State militants, Feb. 23, 2016. (photo by REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny)
After several failed attempts, the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) finally moved to Tripoli, arriving March 31. The international community praised the action, hoping it will be the first step toward not only unifying the country’s two rival governments but also coordinating a response to the Islamic State (IS).
The international community is expecting the GNA to take a leadership role in the fight against the militant terrorist group by uniting Libyan militias around an anti-IS strategy, as there are mounting concerns that IS will not only gain a foothold in the North African state but also seize the country’s oil reserves. “In addition to increased scrutiny of IS and occasional airstrikes, there is an interest in providing air support, training, etc., for an anti-IS effort,” said Issandr El Amrani, North Africa project director for the International Crisis Group.
Gen. David M. Rodriguez, head of the US Africa Command, said in an April 7 briefing that the group’s stronghold in Libya is currently limited to the city of Sirte, but that it does have a presence in Derna and Benghazi, in the east, and Sabratha, in the west. In the March issue of the CTC Sentinel, Geoff D. Porter reported the total area the group can maneuver in is roughly 4,550 square miles.
Life for the 700,000 residents of Sirte is subject to strict regulations similar to those in IS-controlled territories in Iraq and Syria, including bans on smoking and music. Unlike in Iraq and Syria, however, the IS faction in exclusively Sunni Muslim Libya did not evolve from local grievances. Instead, its positioning has been portrayed as a fallback option to Syria and Iraq. An estimated 70% of IS fighters in Libya are believed to be non-Libyan, including from Tunisia, Egypt and Chad.
The intimidating tactics used in Iraq and Syria are now being used in Sirte, Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown and the city where the Libyan leader was killed. Reports from sources in the city who asked to remain anonymous for security concerns suggest that the morality police are increasingly arresting youths for selling cigarettes, and there are frequent raids on the homes of military and police personnel, who are under pressure to enroll in the organization. If they refuse, they are executed, according to the reports. In addition, IS recently demanded that each citizen pay zakat (a religious obligation) of 400 Libyan dinars (almost $300), which goes to directly support the group. A recent estimate from a source in Sirte put the number of IS fighters in the city and its environs at about 3,000.
The total number of IS fighters in Libya remains disputed. At the end of last year, estimates stood between 2,000 and 3,000 but have since increased. According to Rodriquez, recent figures from the US intelligence community suggest that there are between 4,000 and 6,000. Porter estimates that Libya has about 30% of the average estimate of fighters in Iraq and Syria, which combined geographically are three times smaller than Libya.
“The question is how [do you define IS],” said El Amrani, discussing the recent increase. Many current Libyan IS members were previously members of other militia groups and the al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Sharia. According to El Amrani, the numbers need to be viewed with caution. He added that there is also a question of the degree of unified command by leaders with links to IS in Iraq and Syria over IS fighters within Libya’s borders.
The suspected increase in IS fighters has stirred questions about the group’s intentions and whether it is seeking to establish a stronghold in the oil-rich North African country. The Sunni extremist group was initially able to take advantage of the power vacuum in the aftermath of Gadhafi’s overthrow. US President Barack Obama has recently described the failure to prepare for the aftermath of Gadhafi’s fall as the worst mistake of his presidency. Indeed, the absence of a central and unified government paved the way for the growth of militias and groups such as IS.
Concern about IS’ intentions prompted the United States to conduct two airstrikes in Libya, both targeting what Rodriguez described as posing an “imminent” threat to US interests and personnel. On Feb. 19, fighter jets and drones attacked an IS training camp close to Sabratha, 40 miles west of Tripoli. Among the 41 killed was the main target, Noureddine Chouchane, a Tunisian national believed to have been involved in two terrorist attacks in Tunisia last year. Two Serbian Embassy staff members held hostage were also killed. In November, a US airstrike in the eastern city of Derna killed Abu Nabil, the group’s former leader in Libya. According to El Amrani, these types of attacks can be efficient in containing the militant group’s expansion, eliminating its leadership and materiel and maintaining pressure on the ground.
There are risks, however, to increasing the international presence in Libya too quickly. Despite the GNA’s initial success, the country remains divided, with people in both the east and the west opposing the unity government.
“These opponents would likely use any foreign intervention as a rallying cry, especially the Islamist side, as we see from the recent calls by [Libyan Grand] Mufti al-Gheriani for jihad against the GNA,” said El Amrani. Meanwhile, in March, UN experts reported that IS “has been spreading a nationalistic narrative, portraying itself as the most important bulwark against foreign intervention.”
“Ultimately Libyans will need to retake territory under the control of IS,” El Amrani said. That will require not only a unified effort by Libyan groups, but a plan for governance that takes into account local grievances. There is already a widespread perception that the GNA is a Western product. “Moving too fast could compound that view,” El Amrani said. “More efforts need to be made, in particular, at getting to an agreement among security actors to back this government and a single anti-IS strategy.”
Moving forward, the political and economic drivers of violence in Libya need to be addressed. “Security is rarely a result of mere force,” said Mattia Toaldo, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The fight over oil resources has been a big driver of violence.”
Toaldo argues that a more consensual management of these resources should help de-escalate fighting between militias and increase focus on IS. According to Toaldo, the government’s priorities should now include ensuring it can pay salaries, reconciliation with Zintan, thereby pacifying western Libya and restarting oil production, as well as reconciliation with the east and building a national security council.
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The mounting fears that Daesh’s growth in Libya will spill over on to Tunisia are rising as a group of militants belonging to the group crossed the border in an attempt to cease the southern Tunisian city of Ben Gardane yesterday morning.
The attack started just after 5am in what the defence and interior ministries say were coordinated attacks against the city’s military, a National Guard station and the police 40 kilometres from the Libyan border. Clashes between the security forces and the assailants erupted on the village’s streets. Last night, the Ministry of Interior announced that 35 Daesh members had been killed and seven captured. In addition, 11 security force personnel were reportedly killed in the attack and 12 were wounded while an estimated seven civilians were also reported dead and three injured.
The attack on Monday morning was not the first assault on the southern Tunisian village. Last week an exchange of fire broke out between alleged militants and Tunisian security forces, in which five suspected militants were killed and large collections of weapons were seized.
Libya’s internal conflict and power vacuum since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 has given the militant group an opportunity to gain a foothold in the oil rich North African state. The assailants behind both the terrorist attack at Bardo National Museum in Tunis on 18 March and the attack on a beach at the tourist hotspot Sousse on 26 June last year are both believed to have received training in Libya.
Tunisian-Libyan relations have recently grown increasingly intense and the Ben Gardane attack comes as no surprise as tensions have been rising along the border. On 23 February 23 a US drone attack hit a Daesh training facility close to Sabratah about 70 kilometres west of Tripoli and 100 kilometres from the Tunisian border. At least 43 people were killed in the attack, according to the mayor of Sabratah, most of them Tunisian nationals, including its main target Noureddine Chouchane, a Tunisian accused of involvement in both the Bardo and Sousse attacks. After the attack a video of one of the captured Tunisian militants circulated where he confirmed Daesh’s intention to launch an attack on Ben Gardane.
To political analyst Youssef Cherif there is a connection between the US attack on Sabratah and yesterday’s assault on Ben Gardane. The fighters are looking for a new safe heaven and “Ben Gardane, where many of them are from and which is located in a rather peaceful area, looked like the perfect spot,” argued Cherif. The city is home to many disgruntled people, explained Cherif; many of the city’s citizens are angry at the central state and feel disadvantaged. In addition, a base on Tunisian soil would stir international reactions. “Taking over any Tunisian town will make global headlines,” said Cherif, “A Wilayat in the heart of the Arab world’s only democracy.”
The international community has grown increasingly worried about the militant group’s influence in war-torn Libya. The Pentagon has increased its estimate of the number of Libyan Daesh fighters from about 3,000 to 5,000-6,000, many of whom are believed to originate from Tunisia, which has one of the largest number of foreign fighters. As of October 2015, approximately 6,000 Tunisian fighters are believed to have travelled to Syria, according to a recent report by The Soufan Group. According to the same report 15.2 per cent of the Tunisian fighters are from Ben Gardane.
“In their relative isolation, comfort with cross-border travel and antagonism towards outsiders, families in Ben Gardane have proved susceptible to the call of violent extremism,” the report stated.
In an attempt to protect the country’s border with Libya, a 200-kilometre-long earth wall, along with a trench, have been built. The Tunisian forces will also receive training in electronic surveillance including handling equipment such as cameras and radars, Defence Minister Farhat Hachani explained.
Cherif is sceptical that these preventative measures will be sufficient. “The assailants had some local support,” he said, which may explain how the large group could reach Ben Gardane. Whilst the wall may help in decreasing the likelihood of these events, it will not stop them, he argued. Informal and illegal trade in southern Tunisia will always lead people to attempt to cross the border.
“Not only terrorists, but also civilians,” explains Cherif. “And there will always be corrupt officers who close their eyes.” Another obstacle is the border’s length. “It is very long, almost impossible to control completely by an army like Tunisia’s,” Cherif concluded.
There were some unconfirmed reports of renewed clashes on a traffic police station in Oued Fessi, about 12 kilometres from Ben Gardane, yesterday evening. In an attempt to control the situation the Tunisian government imposed a curfew on the city between 7pm and 5am
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You never know what you might hear on the Libyan debate showHiwar Mushtarak, or ‘Shared Debate.’ The show aims to foster an open dialogue about the country’s current challenges and its potential future by bringing together Libyans of all stripes. There are panel discussions featuring a diverse range of Libyan politicians and civil society activists, and the audience is encouraged to engage, giving a voice to ordinary Libyan citizens.
For a recent show to commemorate Libya’s February 17 revolution, which five years ago led to the ousting and death of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, a panel debated the question: What is the way forward? On a stage at the Science City Auditorium in Tunisia’s capital Tunis, where the show was recorded, panelist Amal Labeidi, Professor of Politics at University of Benghazi, began by highlighting the need for disarmament. She insisted that securing the large amount of weapons circulating within the country’s borders was a primary concern that needed to be addressed first. “No democratic progress can be achieved without security,” said Labeidi.
The discussion remained focused on how to build a secure and stable state. Panelist Hisham al-Wendi, independent participant in the UN Libya talks, insisted that priority needed to be given to creating a culture of tolerance and forgiveness. To which Giuma Atiqa, former Vice President of the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC), added the importance of reconciliation. “There is a link between national reconciliation and security,” he said. Efforts to heal wounds are an integral part of re-building society, observed Atiqa. For Mustafa El Sagezli, Director of General Libyan Program of Integration and Development, who works on re-integrating former fighters, it was essential that all willing parties are included in the dialogue about the country’s future. “With exclusion you feed hate,” he said. Najwa al-Fitouri, Member of Voice of Libyan Women for Peace, emphasized that the time for dialogue was ripe.
Along with listening to panelists, one of the principal aims of Hiwar Mushtarak is to give the audience a rare opportunity to voice their opinions freely. “The aim is to support a culture of dialogue,” explained the show’s producer, 23-year-old Libya Idris from the development charity BBC Media Action, which has trained and supported the show’s Libyan staff.
The around 200 audience members for this episode followed the debate closely. In addition to security, the show addressed topics such as the Government of National Accord (GNA), terrorism and whether or not to support a Western intervention to target the Islamic State. On the latter, most of the Libyans present seemed to reject the idea. One of them, a young man in the audience, opposed any foreign interference. “We refuse to become another Iraq,” he said to the panelists.
“This is a collective effort to overcome divisions and hopefully circulate ideas through, for example, social media,” said panelist Labeidi after the show. “The more we discuss our problems, the better.”
”There are no debate shows like this in Libya,” said Nemat Ghanimi from Tripoli, who was temporarily in Tunisia and took advantage of the opportunity to join the audience. According to the 19-year-old, the show empowers young people by giving them a way to communicate with politicians. For another of the young women in the audience, 19-year-old Janan Abdulkader, this was the second time joining the program. When she came to the last show she was immediately captivated. She had never heard of a show where anyone in the audience could openly ask questions. Politics had held little interest for her before, but she is now keen to get involved in the show. But most of her Libyan friends in Tunisia are reluctant to come. She has tried convincing them but they are afraid it could cause them problems.
“The program shows that you can have a heated debate without using violence,” said the show’s host, 30-year-old Raafat Belkhair, “Libyans can find a common ground.” To him, it is especially important at this period of time in Libya’s transition to emphasize that expressing one’s opinions is a right. While Belkhair likes an interactive and heated debate he admits that sometimes the discussions can get overly heated, and then it is important to remain neutral and well-organized.
This episode was recorded in Tunisia but Belkhair, who is from Tripoli, is hoping that the show will return to Libya in the very near future. Ghanimi agrees. It sends the wrong message having the show in Tunisia and not in Libya, she said. Despite supporting the initiative she is skeptical it will lead to any concrete solutions. The next episode will be recorded in April, this time in London, a city with a large Libyan diaspora. “And perhaps the one after will be in Libya, inshallah (God willing),” said a hopeful Abdulkader.
Towards the end of the show, Belkhair asked the audience: Are you optimistic about the GNA? About half of the audience raised their hands, which may reflect the divided and cautious political opinion among many Libyans five years after the revolution.
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The Tunisian parliament has voted in favour of changes to a law which will ensure that detainees have a right to an attorney. The legislative revision comes at a time when an increasing crackdown on terrorism has resulted in rising reports of youth arrests accompanied by police brutality, as well as detention and torture. The country continues to struggle with a large number of radicalised youth and, consequently, is trying to respond effectively to this threat.
Arrests and torture
The amendment, which also ensures detainees’ right to have access to a doctor as well as a reduced maximum period of pre-charge detention, comes at a time when there have been several reports of police brutality. Last month, the Organisation Against Torture in Tunisia noted 10 cases where the rights of detainees and prisoners were violated by the authorities.
“Violations are often committed during the arrest process and this is the moment when the detainees are most vulnerable,” explained Human Rights Watch Tunisia researcher Amna Guellali. Whilst praising the legal reform, she expressed concern regarding an exception relating to terrorism charges, for which there is no right to an attorney during the first 48 hours in custody. “It increases the risk of being subjected to torture,” she said.
The Tunisian anti-terrorism law — which was approved near-unanimously by parliament on 25 July in the aftermath of the Sousse attack in June last year, when one man killed 39 people at a beach resort — raised concerns among human rights organisations. They argued that the legislation lacked protection against abusive practices and provided security forces with unclear and vast surveillance capacity.
“It’s worrying that with each terrorist attack there are voices calling for more security,” said Guellali, highlighting the increasingly difficult security environment that has followed since the attack at the Bardo Museum on 18 March last year, leaving 24 dead. After the most recent terrorist attack in Tunis city centre, targeting the presidential security guard and killing 12, President Beji Caid Essebsi imposed a temporary state of emergency and a nightly curfew.
According to a recent Amnesty report at least six people have died in police custody since 2011. The human rights watchdog also highlighted that detainees had experienced torture including electric shocks after being accused of involvement in terrorism. “The rate of arrests increase after each terrorist attack or threat and they have been conducted haphazardly,” lawyer Ghofrane El Hjaij told Tunisia Live. “The accusations are based on suspicion of being a terrorist or being affiliated with banned radical groups like Ansar Al-Shariaa.”
Many cases involve young men. One of them is 20-year-old Beirim from the coastal city of Monastir, where the Ministry of Interior recently reported that 17 individuals with links to a terrorist cell had been arrested. Beirim was accused of plotting an attack against one of the nearby tourist resorts. According to him he was invited to meet a friend at a hotel and suspects that the police were tapping his phone. He was held and questioned for eleven days before being released. The reason behind his surveillance was that his brother, Bilel, left the family home to go to fight in Syria in 2013. In Skype conversations, he sent photos of his participation with Daesh and tried to convince his brother to join the group. Beirim never went; today he is married and has a full-time job.
The many prison sentences and interrogations of the country’s youth may be counterproductive. Throwing the country’s youth behind bars will only further radicalise people, argues Mohamed Iqbel Ben Rejeb, founder of Rescue Association of Tunisians Trapped Abroad; the organisation’s primary purpose is to assist family members of Tunisians who have left for jihad in Syria or Iraq. Even though the stream of young Tunisian jihadists reached its peak in 2012/13 some are still leaving, but now there are also some who want to return home, says Ben Rejeb.
Tunisian youth were the key players behind the revolution that ousted former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali; they marked its five year anniversary by continuing to protest for the same objectives: dignity and jobs. In 2015, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated youth unemployment in Tunisia at almost 40 per cent and described the situation as a “true social tragedy that urgently needs to be addressed.” The recent Amnesty report also warned that an increasingly brutal security crackdown may jeopardise the democratic transition and push the country back to the draconian practices which were common during the Ben Ali era.
De-radicalisation vs imprisonment
As far as Bilel’s father is concerned, the answer is to speak to the youth. “It’s in their head,” he argues, challenging the oft cited socio-economic explanation for the widespread phenomenon of youth radicalisation in Tunisia.
Another father, Jouneidi Ayed, lives in a neighbouring district in Monastir; he agrees. His son left to go to Syria after being exposed to the radical influence of an Islamic scholar; the move was not grounded in socio-economic marginalisation. Ayed’s son had a job and money, he explains while sitting in his middle-income living room. After witnessing the terror in Syria his son has had a change of heart and has been able to find refuge in Turkey. Today, though, he is stuck in Istanbul and without a passport he is unable to leave. Any involvement with, or links to, terrorist groups means a prison sentence and Ayed fears what awaits his son back in Tunisia. If he comes home, his future is already destroyed, he believes. “This is his destiny; he is better off in Turkey,” he adds bitterly.
Ayed’s dilemma is not unique. For the young Tunisians who manage to leave the terrorist organisations, returning home is almost impossible. That’s one of the reasons why Ben Rejeb is an advocate of de-radicalisation programmes. Whilst recognising the risks and concluding that they can never be the sole solution, he believes that such programmes should be one strategy to manage Tunisia’s many radicalised youth.
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For every Libyan citizen, there are two or more guns circulating within the oil-rich North African country’s border, based on a consensus of estimates.
“Since 2011, everybody carries weapons — even 10-year-old children,” said a Tobruk parliamentarian on the condition of anonymity.
Not only has the flow of arms become a lucrative and flourishing business, it is also the source of a large number of accidents, often within households. The parliamentarian is one of 12 women participating in the first round of a training program designed to increase awareness about firearm danger.
“There was a 10-year-old girl who accidentally killed her mother,” Asma, a woman from Benghazi who is participating in the program, recalled.
The tragedy happened to her neighbor’s family. The handgun was kept under a pillow on the parents’ bed. Asma attended the funeral, and she remembers how the grandmother placed all the blame on the young girl’s shoulders. People openly pointed at the little girl.
This is just one of many tragic incidents experienced by families in Libya, and that’s why she is taking part in this training program.
Despite the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons and ammunition, there is little discussion of how to store and handle weapons safely. Many accidents happen when people clean their weapons. Nana, a participant from southern Libya, told of a man who accidentally shot and killed his sister while he was polishing his loaded handgun. But it is not only within the households that education is necessary, said Nana, who remembers another incident where two police offers were joking around on a street when a bullet went off, hitting one of the men in the leg, which then had to be amputated.
The gun situation has influenced the dynamics of gender in the Libyan communities, where women and girls are disproportionately affected by the violence. That’s why the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and the Small Arms Survey in Geneva designed the risk-awareness program to focus specifically on women.
In the next step toward implementing the program, the Women Empowerment Section (WES) of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) compiled a list of potential participants based on their involvement in women’s issues or politics. The women were contacted to see if they were interested, and some of those women used their networks to help expand the list. The first group of 12 women began their first of three training sessions Dec. 14-16 in Tunis. When they complete their training in March, WES hopes to schedule workshops for more women.
“The women are eager to be involved. We only provide the tools for them to act,” explained Paul Grimsley, chief of arms and ammunition at UNSMIL. The program also aims to make women aware of their unique influence over household behavior to change attitudes and practices, he said.
There are many reasons why people own guns in Libya. Asma believes self-defense is the most important factor. But for many people, it is also about status, and weapons instill a feeling of power, she said.
“The nature of the demand has changed,” said Nic Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services Pty. Ltd., an international technical intelligence consultancy. Jenzen-Jones has been focusing on Libya for several years. In the beginning of the conflict, the most favored weapons were primarily semi-automatic rifles and machine guns. Recently, there has been a significant increase in the demand for concealable weapons like handguns, which are often purchased for self-defense and can be easily carried or stored in a car.
As demand has risen, prices have increased, too. In Libya today, a secondhand, European-made, semi-automatic pistol can cost some 5,000-6,000 Libyan dinars ($3,600-$4,300), compared with $600-$900 in the United States, Jenzen-Jones estimated. Ammunition costs more, too. As the conflict has evolved, the arms trade has become increasingly commercialized. Today, weapons are sold almost openly in some places. They are also sold in black markets and via social media, either by individuals or by some armed groups, he said.
The primary cause for the significant number of small arms circulating illicitly in Libya is the plundering of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s large stockpiles of weapons. Weapons from the Gadhafi era are today in the hands of militant groups, terrorists and criminals across Africa and the Middle East, according to UN reports. As the conflict evolved, the domestic arms business and arms trafficking abroad became a lucrative business in the war-torn country. In the beginning of the conflict, many of the arms found in the hands of armed rebel groups were civilian-owned rifles, some of which had been within families for a long time. However, as the conflict escalated, these arms were supplemented by weaponry captured from regime forces and military bases, as well as those supplied by defecting troops. In addition, there was an influx of weapons smuggled from neighboring countries.
The combination of the rise in demand for weapons within Libya and some improvement in protecting stockpiled arms has contributed to a slowdown in the weapons leaving Libya, said Jenzen-Jones. Trafficking reached a peak in 2012, when truckloads of weapons were transported out of the country. Libya became a regional center for illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons in North Africa. While arms from and within Libya continue to proliferate, there are now new sources of weapons flowing into the country.
“We need a strategy to collect small arms and reduce weapons within the households,” said Nana. Yet it is unlikely that people will be convinced to give up their weapons until a basic level of security is restored to Libyan communities. As long as there is no law and order, most Libyans will continue to arm themselves for protection.
Nana and the other women have learned concrete safety steps, including how to store weapons in safe spaces in the household and keeping the ammunition stored separately. These are some of the lessons the women will take back to their Libyan communities.
“The aim is to create a multiplying effect,” said Caitlin Longden, a junior program officer at UNMAS.
“Before the conflict, Libyans didn’t have this culture of arms,” said Selma from Zaoula. Today, Libyans are tired of the conflict and want peace, she said. She is hoping that by taking part in this training, she can contribute to making her community safer. On the global level, she has one message to the international community: Control the arms flow to Libya.
Muslims conduct prayers as they gather for Lailat al-Qadr at Al Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis, July 24, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi)
TUNIS, Tunisia — As Tunisia addresses its recent terrorist threat with a short-term security crackdown, long-term measures from the Ministry of Religious Affairs aim to take back Islam from extremists and enlighten its youth through social media and the help of moderate imams.
“It is we who represent Islam. Not them,” Najet Hammami of Tunisia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs told Al-Monitor recently. Hammami was referring to radical elements behind the country’s three major terrorist attacks this year: the attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis March 18, the mass shooting at a tourist resort in Sousse June 26 and the latest, the Nov. 24 suicide bombing of a military bus in downtown Tunis. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for all three attacks.
The assaults come as Tunisia, a democratic success story, struggles to understand why around 3,000 of its citizens have gone to become foreign fighters for IS — among the highest rates in the region.
Hammami said that all of Tunisian society needs to take part in the fight against radicalization. The Ministry of Religious Affairs plays a key role in that fight, she said, and is establishing a counternarrative campaign, “We are Islam.” The movement aims to reach young people over social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
“We need to use technology in the same way” as the radical recruiters, she said.
Some reasons for Tunisia’s developing radicalization may be found in its history. Religion has historically been a controversial topic in the country, as its practice was strictly regulated during the administrations of ousted Presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. When the revolution put an end to decades of repression in 2011, Salafi movements such as Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia quickly took advantage of the newly won freedoms. The group’s founder, Seifallah Ben Hassine, better known as Abu Iyadh al-Tunisi, was released along with about 300 jihadists during an amnesty period shortly after the revolution.
His movement gained ground quickly as he preached and lectured at many of the country’s mosques. About 400 mosques are believed to have come under Salafi control, and about 50 under Salafi jihadists. After Ansar al-Sharia was designated a terrorist organization in August 2013, the state began clamping down on the country’s mosques.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs has tried to regain control over the mosques, aiming to replace violence-inciting imams with ministry-sanctioned religious leaders. The government has employed 600 people tasked with ensuring that the imams’ rhetoric is in accordance with the law. But Hammami estimates there are about 5,400 mosques in Tunisia, and it is not easy to control them all. At the moment, there are about 80 mosques operating without permission from the government, and they are being closed down.
However, publicity surrounding the imams’ dismissals and mosque closures needs to improve, according to security analyst Habib Sayah. So far, he told Al-Monitor, jihadi groups have been taking advantage of the government’s efforts, as the closures seem to reinforce their narrative. To them, the controls prove the state is declaring war on Islam and true believers.
“Each wave of mosque closures is followed by aggressive campaigns framing it as an act of tyranny,” said Sayah. One slogan that trended on social media following the first crackdowns under former Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa was, “Even the apostate Ben Ali never dared to close a mosque.”
Mosques are important public spaces and their imams influence a lot of people. Many young Tunisians pray in mosques on a regular basis, so it is important to address their grievances, according to Afif Sbabti, an imam and vice president of the venerable religious institution Zaytuna.
“After the Friday prayer, there are usually people who want to talk or ask questions,” Sbabti told Al-Monitor. After the revolution, many people wanted to delve deeper into Islam after so many years of repression. He is convinced that one solution can be found in education about Islam, especially for the young. However, Zaytuna University’s resources are limited, he stressed.
Imams can offer a message based on the true values of Islam and thereby counter those who use religion to incite violence, said moderate Islamist politician Sayida Ounissi, who spoke to Al-Monitor.
“The imams have a very important and symbolic role,” she said. They need to reclaim the mosques that have been influenced by imams targeting youth with radical discourse, and they need to address the youths’ grievances. Religious leaders play a key role for young people and should discuss the nature of being a young Muslim and how to take part in the community and improve society, she said.
“The imams can definitely be a catalyst for citizenship and [develop] the feeling of community,” she added. “They have a responsibility.”
To train its imams, Tunisia has looked to Morocco as a model.
Morocco has become known for a multifaceted approach to counter radicalization that promotes a tolerant spirit of religious traditions and learning that includes a TV channel and radio stations. The approach was initiated after a terrorist attack in Casablanca in 2003, when 12 young men from a poor suburb of the city attacked a luxury hotel, a Jewish community center and a Spanish restaurant full of tourists, killing 33 people. In March 2014, the two countries began working together on religious reforms and the education of Tunisian imams in Morocco. The aim is for young Muslims to follow in the imams’ footsteps toward moderate Islam.
“Morocco can be a model for us,” Ounissi said.
However, moderate religious teaching must be promoted through local socio-political contexts, said Anouar Boukhars, associate fellow at the European think tank Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue and a nonresident scholar in the Middle East program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In North Africa, the decline of the Sunni Maliki school of jurisprudence, to which most Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians adhere, has, according to Boukhars, received little attention as an underlying enabler of the spread of Salafi appeal. Therefore, strengthening neighborhood mosques and imam-training institutions is crucial to building a credible counternarrative to the intolerant ideas and practices propagated by some self-proclaimed Salafi clerics. Yet there are also risks, and the government should proceed with caution in overhauling traditional religious institutions and mosques, Boukhars told Al-Monitor.
Giving the Ministry of Religious Affairs full control over religious discourse would undermine religious freedom, said Sayah. This was the procedure under Ben Ali’s regime: Friday sermons were dictated by the government. As a result, people flocked to the mosques that were led by rebellious imams — both liberal and conservative — who delivered a message perceived as more authentic than that of the ministry.
“Restoring the old system will undermine the credibility of the message,” said Sayah. For a sustainable result, the discourse should focus on “empowering those religious leaders who are genuinely liberal and help them win over the youth through a softer approach.”
The message needs to be plain, but not simplistic, Sayah said. “Simple messages such as ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ may not convince radicals who are well-versed in religious scriptures, where counterarguments can be found easily,” said Sayah.
Also, the character of the person delivering the message is important, he said. Certain religious scholars or institutions have been denigrated by jihadist leaders as hypocrites or opportunists.
“Many young people also distrust the older generations, which is why young religious leaders should be at the forefront of the battle against violent extremism,” he added.
Developing credible clerics and religious institutions is an important step in the fight against religious extremism, but it is not enough, Boukhars concluded, saying, “Serious and credible theologians can tear down violent interpretations of Islam, but unfortunately they can’t tackle the root causes of militancy.”
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Two major terrorist attacks earlier this year, on Sousse beach and the Bardo museum in Tunis, show that Tunisia’s process of democratisation has been flanked by a growth in the influence of jihadist groups. Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia (AST) was the biggest and most influential Jihadi-Salafi group following the 2011 revolution, but has been driven underground by a government crackdown since 2013. However, AST’s demise may now encourage more Tunisian youths to align with Islamic State. Furthermore, the rise and fall of AST shows the need to balance short term counter-terrorism measures with longer-term youth-focused policies.
