If you put up on your facebook page, lets discuss islamic extremism, what kind of response would you get to that . Actually some of our hosted to talk about this in different angles. We did get people who are very much angry at the terrorist groups who are quoting some of our audience, defaming islam. Many of the audience members tried to explain how daesh and other terrorist groups using islam to commit their crimes and how they portrayed negative image of moses around the world. Sometimes we the people are sympathetic to terrorist ideas and we see that our audience comes in and tries to reason with those sympathizers and show them how wrong they are reaching out what theyre preaching is wrong and give their examples of how terrorism is negative. You been watching the communicators on cspan. If you like to see some of our previous programs dont do cspan. Org your. Today, to an author and investigative journalist sally denton talks about her book, the profiteers, which takes a look at the back till corporation, one of the largest incident and Construction Companies in the world. Q a errors weekdays in august at 7 p. M. Eastern time. Tonight on booktv all of this tonight on booktv in prime time on cspan2. Tonight, the Communications Business middle is Broadcasting Networks including alhurra and radio sawa. We speak with the president of the middle east Broadcasting Networks, fran mires. About how they should democrats values with an audience that would otherwise be exposed to a broader spectrum of opinions. We been on the air for 12 years, and over that period of time i think the audience has come to learn that its not propaganda. We do strive to be balanced, but we also provide topics. We cover topics and we provide information that is not readily available. You are not enough people telling the stories of the difficult it is to be a woman and a girl child. So how many stories have we done on child marriages . I can even count. So you can do enough because really they are not telling the story enough. Its too sensitive, too close to home. Radio voice is a campaign we launched in september 2015 to encourage people in the middle east to engage and be part of a discussion of important issues in the region, including extremism, root causes of extremism and unemployment, human rights, women trust of all these issues that are important to the arab. Violent extremism in africa is on the rise according to the undersecretary of state sarah sewall are just part of a recent discussion on u. S. Efforts to counter religious extremism in countries across the continent. The center for strategic and International Studies in washington, d. C. Hosted this discussion. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to csis, and its great to see all fear, and welcome to our online audience as well. My name is jennifer cooke. I direct the Africa Program here at csis, and im very pleased to be organizing in conjunction with the u. S. Institute, the commission for International Religious freedom, todays session on violent extremism, religious extremism in africa, looking at there is responses of that. Through the course of the next month, the commission and csis will be hosting a small series of off the record roundtables. Each one looking at different models, different places, different interlocutors and promising models, what has been missing from some of the endeavors to counter extremist ideologies within africa. We dont have africans at the table today. Unfortunately, the ambassador was unable to join us. We hope we will have her at a later session. Shes a really fantastic woman and very much devoted to this issue into the critical issue of education in all of this. But today we are really delighted to have, to lead a its author, dr. Sarah sewall who is the undersecretary for civil security, democracy and human rights at the u. S. State department. Doctor school has been previous work of Harvard Kennedy school as director of the carr center for human rights, and kobe Prestigious Center and the program on human rights and national security. She was a member of the defense policy board, Deputy Assistant secretary of state for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance in the clinton administration, worked for Senate Majority leader George Mitchell and was an oxford scholar sometime back. She has been one of those voices within the state department that has been persistent and consistent in making sure that this issue of countering violent extremism remains on the radar screen. It can be very easy to devolve quickly into kind of security measures when you are talking about east africa or the horn. Im not saying that those are easy but the much more difficult part of all this is in changing the social norms and the social interactions and the thinking and the hearts and minds and the grievances and frustrations of many of the young populations who are drawn into some of these movements. Its critically important that, particularly for the United States not to kind of reinforce in partner governments minds that idea every this is a military situation. I think youve been one of the voices that has kept that up and made that very clear to you as partners in the fight against this. I would like to turn to you. Dr. Sewall is agreed to offer a keno, open up for some questions and then return to a panel with terje ostebo, from the university of florida, department of religion, department of african affairs, department of islam. He keeps adding programs and departments and Tiffany Lynch who is a Senior Advisor at the u. S. Commission for international freedom. But first were going to turn to dr. Sewall and then open it up for questions from you all. So welcome. We are really delighted to have you. Thank you for the terrific teams at csis and u. S. Commission on International Religious freedom for bringing us together. As you probably know, we at state rely on csiss worldclass research and analysis to help us look around the corner and make sense of emerging challenges. So im pleased that youve taken on the topic of religious extremism in africa. As your project implies, policymakers need to better understand both how religion affects issues of security and stability, and equally important, how to encourage and reinforce nonviolent, tolerant expressions of faith. The social fabric and the political dialogue. So while much global attention to violent extremism focuses on syria and iraq, religiously motivated violent extremism is on the rise in africa, in east africa, west africa, the sahel and the maghreb. So this is a really vitally important, its still under study topic, and thank you for taking it on. I would like to start at the beginning by simply stating the obvious, which is that freedom of religion, freedom of conscience are bedrock principles of u. S. Experience and of u. S. Foreign policy. The United States favors no particular faith. Within our own borders we embrace all religions. U. S. Policy of the worst of the use of any ideology, not just religious ideology, to justify violence or to violate universal rights. And the u. S. Policy also rejects the claim that specific religions are the cause of terrorism. As president obama has said repeatedly, we are not at war with islam. We are at war with people who have perverted islam. In africa and around the world, religion propels many people to do inspiring good. In my work as under secretary, one of my greatest privileges has been meeting people who have from all religious traditions been central to advancing the health and the strength and vitality of their own communities. Last march i traveled to zanzibar, a small island off the coast of tanzania. When i was there as often do i met with representatives from different local faith communities. This baby have a particular impact on me because it was in this discussion that i learned what nasa does to a persons face. Sheikh zaraga is more than a local imam. Hes an institution. He won peoples respect not through fiery sermons, but through tireless, thankless work for people in the community. Connecting the unemployed to jobs. Mentoring aimless youth. Preaching tolerance and respect. His face was the face of islam, positive, hopeful, peaceful. When attackers hurled acid at him, they shook the community to its core. Extremist violence had come to zanzibar in the last couple of years, seeking to terrorize in the name of the same religion the community had practiced for centuries. Sheik zaragas faith was being perverted and rebranded. Elsewhere in africa, violent extremism is linked to purported religious tenets. Some examples, boko haram abducting young girls who have the audacity to want to learn. The Lords Resistance Army enslaves children to carry out horrific acts. Rogue followers of traditional religions attack people with albinism to traffic their body parts. Homophobic vitriol spouted in some churches and mosques has inspired mobs to murder gay people in the streets of abuja, kampala, and elsewhere. Many violent extremists harness religious claims to cloak their depravity and inspire followers. Sadly, acts of violence in the name of religion are as old as religion itself, and they persist in communities around the world, from socalled honor killings to wife burnings. But today what we see in the meditation of the strings is novel and dangerous. Its the rise of organize, heavily armed nonstate actors that justify violence and territorial ambitions with religious ideologies. Groups like alshabaab, boko haram, alqaida in the maghreb, and the lra. These groups threaten africas every achievement and aspiration, from economic growth, to womens rights, health care, and education. For africas future, and for global security, they must be defeated. That begins with understanding what allowed these groups to take root and spread. We cannot ignore the influence of violent religious ideologies that inflame passions and dehumanize the other. Alshabaab and boko haram, for example, justify their brutality in twisted interpretations of salafism. Many alshabaab leaders were indoctrinated in ultraconservative religious schools in the middle east. The lras purported faith entails a warped version of the Ten Commandments that it seeks to impose on others. When these groups repeatedly invoke religion to spill blood and inspire followers, we cannot pretend religion has no role. But our analysis cannot stop there, because the story is far more complex. Thats really what we look forward to this joint work between csis and the commission to further unpacking. We know that many other factors play a role in spurring people to violence or making them susceptible to violate ideologies, including religious ideologies. These factors will be unique to local circumstances, but they will likely also reflect broad themes such as marginalization, poor or abusive governance, limited opportunity, and feelings of discontent and dislocation. Aqim exploited feelings of marginalization across northern mali to establish new outposts of terror. Most of boko harams followers hail from historically neglected regions of northern nigeria. Political and economic exclusion among the ethnic acholi helped spark the lra in northern uganda. In many parts of africa, vast ungoverned territories provide violent extremists areas to train, recruit, or tax. Deep in the forests of central africa, the lra and boko haram are free to sustain their evil. They have safe havens from which to strike and wreak havoc on communities before melting away to recover and strike again. Government incompetence and abuse also fan extremist violence. In east and west africa, corruption allows extremists to cast themselves as pious alternatives. In somalia, years of anarchy in the 1990s led some to welcome alshabaabs promise of security and the rule of law. Unlawful and Excessive Force by government, often in the name of security, can empower factions arguing that violence is the only option. After the former nigerian governments spate of Police Brutality and extrajudicial killings, boko haram escalated its campaign of terror. Similarly, alleged abuses by the Ethiopian Military in somalia elevated alshabaab by allowing the group to tout itself as defender of the faithful. Violent extremists are also abetted by more recent trends linked to globalization, like the proliferation of information and communications technology, which gives them new platforms to cultivate followers, connect otherwise distant sympathizers, and recruit beyond areas of their physical control. Violent extremists similarly exploit rapid population growth and industrialization across africa. Countless people, especially young people, have left villages to find work in teeming cities and make sense of their place in a new economic and social order. Adrift in these rapid changes, violent ideologies promising purpose, community, and identity find appeal. Compounding the problem, extreme weather events made worse by Climate Change add to experiences of dislocation and discontent. All these factors help explain the emergence of violent extremist groups, and they raise serious alarm about the vulnerability of communities across africa struggling with similar issues, especially as daesh seek new footholds for expansion on the continent. The United States stands with africans to prevent the spread of extremist violence. Across the continent, but especially in east africa and the sahel, we train and equip foreign militaries, share intelligence, and support police to enhance border security. These are wellknown elements of our counterterrorism approach in africa. But its critical and i want to spend a few moments talking about the newer and equally vital but still emerging complement to the characters and approach which recall countering violent extremism, or cve. Counterterrorism focuses on existing extremist threats, cve seeks to prevent the next generation of threat from emerging. Cve emphasizes governance, elevating issues of rights in the counterterrorism partnership. It calls on governments to embrace a do no harm approach. This means working with security and Police Forces to end impunity for abuses, embedding Public Institutions with mechanisms for transparency, and reforming prisons to separate petty criminals from violent ideologues. Engagement around cve can work. After months of outreach by u. S. Diplomats, the police chief of mombasa began to openly question whether the practice of widespread, indiscriminate roundups was compounding the problem. The county commissioner of mombasa told us, we are trying to stop being firefighters. Encouraging that shift can be hard. In the wake of extremist violence, governments and citizens often want quick results and tough shows of force, making it easier to fall into harmful patterns of overreaction that can compound the problem. Countries must push back against the propaganda violent extremists use to twist vulnerable minds and pull communities to their orbit. Part of that work is partnering with the Tech Community to disrupt extremist incitements to violence on the internet by flagging content or accounts tied to known terrorists. But it can also mean helping amplify the voices of mainstream religious leaders to denounce the faith as an insult to the deepest tenets of true faith. Up to 90 of africans say religion is very important in their lives; giving african religious leaders enormous influence. We can help better equipped those leaders to use that influence by training imams to use facebook, twitter or text messaging to reach a wider audience. We can help behind the scenes promote interfaith dialogue to address sectarian tensions that inflame calls for violence. And we can certainly encourage other governments like morocco which has terrific Regional Initiative to train imams from gabon, guinea, kenya, mali, and nigeria on to help these religious clerics refute the violent perversions of islam on, with confidence in terms of their interpretations of text. These steps are all important, but alone are insufficient because of violent ideologies and propaganda resident with people for a variety of reasons. Its not the ideology itself. Its who is drawn to the ideology and why they are drawn. These ideologies may resonate because they offer a variety of different needs that are likely to be unique to local circumstance and unique to the individual person. We cant simply refute or ask others with more moral authority of authenticity or connections to the community, refute what violent extremists are offering to the vulnerable. We have to i should address some of those vulnerabilities are help the people address some of those vulnerabilities themselves, to take more empowering and affirming steps to protect the vulnerable. And this really, theres a role for government but fundamentally this is a Community Focused activity. Its about supporting communities to unleash their own potential and find their own sources of resilience. Avoids the violent extremists try to fill our best tackle in town halls, schools and families. Governments that stifle Civil Society and sideline communities sap their own power against violent extremism. So governments began, coming back to do no harm, need to lift any restrictions that have on Civil Society and make sure that there is the freedom to both communicate and act at the local level a long the lines of cve tenants. Here again religious institutions can play a vital role. In africa especially where states every week in performing core government functions, its often religious institutions that fill the void, whether provide education or employment or even financing directly to the foldable. These roles can be important in curbing radicalism. Cve recognizes this and calls for active engagement with religious communities, not just religious leaders who are overwhelmingly male and not especially young but also seeking to engage those from the communities who are not the crusty authority figures. People like classmates, sisters and peers, find w