UN chief: Growing threat of violent extremism demands unified response

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Wednesday 30 Sep 2015 - 12:57 Makkah mean time-17-12-1436 Photo: UN News Center New York (IINA) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stressed on Tuesday that addressing the growing threat posed by violent extremist groups, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known Daesh, goes to the heart of the mission of the United Nations and requires a unified response, UN News Center reported. “Violent extremist groups – including Daesh and Boko Haram – pose a direct threat to international security, mercilessly target women and girls, and undermine universal values of peace, justice and human dignity,” said Ban. “That threat is growing,” he added, noting that recent data shows a 70 percent increase in foreign terrorist fighters from over 100 countries to regions in conflict. The Leaders’ Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, hosted by US President Barack Obama on the margins of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, brought together representatives from more than 100 nations, more than 20 multilateral institutions, some 120 civil society groups from around the world, and partners from the private sector. “Our objective must be to go beyond countering violent extremism to preventing it in the first place,” the UN chief said. In this regard, he outlined five key priorities: the need to engage all of society; the need to make a special effort to reach young people; to build truly accountable institutions; respect for international law and human rights; and the importance of not being ruled by fear – or provoked by those who strive to exploit it. Opening the meeting, President Obama said that it is not going to be enough to defeat ISIL in the battlefield. “We have to prevent it from radicalizing, recruiting and inspiring others to violence in the first place. And this means defeating their ideology. Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they’re defeated by better ideas – a more attractive and compelling vision”. Obama noted that the United States is stepping up its efforts to discredit ISIL’s propaganda, especially online, and working to lift up the voices of Muslim scholars, clerics and others – including ISIL defectors – “who courageously stand up to ISIL and its warped interpretations of Islam”. AB/IINA