“Young people are not born terrorists, but we make them to be”

“They (extremist youth, editor’s note) are not born terrorists, but they are simply pushed to be terrorists,” declared Latifah Ibn Ziaden in an interview. Actu.fr On the sidelines of a conference held on September 21 as part of the International Day of Peace in Carières-sous-Poissy (Yvelines), after the broadcast of a statement by the lady of the republic, Latifa. According to the Franco-Moroccan activist, there is enormous work to be done in education. A job with this young man”.

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“A job on adults too, they have to work on themselves. Adults lead youth, youth are led by parents. If a youth doesn’t have parents behind him, there will be dramas and failures. You can’t get away from it,” he added, adding that today, in some families, the educational train has stopped, parents have lost hope. “This train, we have to get it back on the road”. “Today there is work to be done by parents, schools, teachers and especially in prisons, because that is where we can fall into radicalization. It’s the best school for them, and I can tell you that because I’ve been in prison and I’ve seen how it goes. You know, a prisoner, you have to work with him”, explained the founder of the association “Imad Ibn Ziyaden for Youth and Peace”.

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Latifa Ibn Ziyaden says she saved many young people and even entire families in 10 years. “A girl goes to Syria and her parents go there to pick her up and finally they fall for it and I pick them up. But many efforts have to be made to end sectarianism. Based on this observation, Latifa Ibn Ziaten calls on politicians to play their part. “Politicians have a big job: gender diversity in schools, opening up housing estates, not excluding people”. He also called on them not to create hatred by closing mosques and leaving believers without a mosque. “If someone is bad, we remove him, but leave the mosque open”.