February 18, 2020

In his keynote speech delivered in UN conference titled “Protecting Youth from Extremist and Violent Ideologies”, Dr. Shawki Allam, Egypt’s Mufti and President of the General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide, stated that it is necessary to protect our youth, the hope of tomorrow, from the evil plots made by extremists. These deviant groups utilize youth as an easy tool for infusing their extremist ideologies and a means for destroying homelands.

“It goes without saying that erroneous religious thoughts are a lethal danger we are facing on national and international levels. This is because the effect of these excommunicatory beliefs imposes itself on the entire community and appears in the detested form of violence, terrorism and bloodshed,” Dr. Allam said. He added that intellectual confrontation is the best means to encounter these destructive actions that destabilize communities and delay development. States, governments, religious institutions and international organizations should perform a role in diagnosing extremism and establish protective programs.

The conference is organized by the Muslim World League at UN premises in Geneva from 18-19 February 2020 and it addresses four main themes: Thoughts, ideologies and milieux leading to extremism, national identity and its role in building intellectual security, Europe's Muslim youth in Europe and the threat of extremism, religious and cultural pluralism, and the culture of tolerance.