Maat Releases a New Study on Combating Violent Religious Extremism in Egypt
The culture of violent religious extremism threatens all of us
Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights has recently issued a new study entitled "Violent Extremism in Egypt: Underlying Causes & Means of Combating it” to shed light on the manifestations of widespread violent religious extremism in society as well as its causes and to discuss the efforts made to curb this alarming phenomenon in order to come up with a set of recommendations to develop a complete vision that helps eliminate violent religious extremism from Egypt.
The study indicated that violent religious extremism inside Egypt contributed to the perpetration of acts of violence in the name of religion. Such acts may directly lead to attacks against certain individuals and religious sects or indirectly encourage religious intolerance and rejection of the other. The report added that all Egyptian state institutions, in addition to religious bodies, civil society organizations, leaders and intellectuals, are working to combat violent religious extremism, in addition to the security services that play an important role in eliminating extremist religious groups.
Ayman Okeil, a human rights expert and president of Maat, stated that acts of violence associated with violent extremism do not emerge out of thin air. Rather, they are an inevitable result of sectarian hostilities that are widely spread in Egyptian society, such as the attack on places of worship as well as other manifestations of sectarian strife. This violence usually occurs due to misinterpretations of religion. Okeil, therefore, calls on the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to review the school curricula and revise all materials that may refer to hatred and religious stereotyping or inflame feelings of hostility towards any religious group.
In the meantime, Okeil said that despite the strenuous efforts to combat the phenomenon of violent extremism in Egyptian society through the efforts of security institutions and civil society as well as religious bodies, we need effective tools capable of eliminating the deeply rooted culture of hatred and rejection of the other which is even reinforced with the existence of certain vocabulary and planting instead a culture of tolerance and acceptance of the other, while urging for the need to study the experiences of other countries to benefit from them in combating violent extremism.
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