The Role of Young Generation in Counter-Terrorism

Recalling United Nations Security Council Resolution 1566 on 2014 about terrorism “Criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking hostages, with the propose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organisation to do or to abstain from doing any act, which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism”, we acknowledge the rise of terrorist network have been targeting youth for many reasons.

Radicalization became one of many ways did by terrorist syndicate to make youth out of their circle while at the same time this situation pushes them to find other social networks to handle their disaffection and anger. This situation may motivate young men to react significantly under disappointed feeling of internal suffering like as was the case with the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston bombing alternatively turn into radical ideology (Reitman, 2013). Terrorist group attracts youths by exploiting their vulnerabilities and providing them with the sense of identity, belonging, acceptance, pride and cohesiveness. The United Nations defines youth as those persons between the age of 15 and 24 years old. The average age of a male Jihadi foreign fighter is between 18 and 29 years old, according to a study by US-based security and intelligence consultants, the Soufan Group.

At 1.8 billion, the current generation of young people aged 10-24 years old is the largest ever known. Global discourse on young people has for a long time predominantly considered the “youth bulge” as a threat to a country’s stability and tended to see young people as a demographic easily driven into violence and extremist ideologies. More than 1.5 billion people live in fragile and conflict-affected states, or in countries where levels of criminal violence are very high. Over 51 million people are forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations, organized crime or even terrorism (UNHCR, Global Trends 2013).

Counter-terrorism is not only the job of government because we can maximize the role of young generation in counter-terrorism since youth being a priority target of terrorism through radicalization. So now is the time for a new era of youth cooperation that strengthens young generation collaboration to confront an international challenge in counter-terrorism worldwide. We remind convince that to counter-terrorism can be actively achieved only through comprehensive approaching-collective and coordinated efforts especially in the form of capacity building not limited to the role of the young generation only. Because we believe countering terrorism by youth requires comprehensive and sophisticated response to deal with. So, Youth engagement activities form is needed to maximize youth role in counter-terrorism practices in many countries. This platform can be initiated in building the capacity of front line actor specifically youth as an agent of change with more credibility. Young people can play active and valuable roles as agent of positive and constructive change. Even though many already do, but still is often unseen or simply overlooked. Young generation actual contribution and further potential action should be valued, recognized, and supported by all actors not limited to government only by engaging with potential community to collaborate with.

In order to counter-terrorism, the young generation needs a more powerful idea with a better narrative, to begin with. Young people need to encourage each other to participate in positive activities in order to prevent the possibility of joining the terrorist networks. Social integration of youth is important along with counter ideology by education involving the Muslim community in the process of countering the radicalization of youth by teaching young people to understand terrorism in sharing values among youth. We believe education is the most powerful and important cross-cutting investment that could be made in youth. So universal education is important for both girls and boys without exception. Education is pivotal in strengthening the resilience of future generations and should promote critical thinking that would help fight bigotry and stereotyping. Youth can empower each other through leadership and mentoring program as well as quality education of re-radicalization should be universally accessible. That is why public diplomacy among youth through the exchange program will be so helpful in changing society’s mindset about real terrorism. Understanding approaching specifically into sharing values among countries shall be considered to use soft approach seeking to influence the hearts and minds of people especially the young generation in understanding and tolerance among youth.

Youth needs to be careful in combating extremist propaganda through social media since the power of social media in giving radical messages may attract youth in joining certain radical groups of terrorism. Based on this situation, youth can help each others in solving the personal crisis in the social aspect rather than go for the terrorist network as a place to go. the engagement between the local community and youth should be maintained in order to maximize the role of youth in counter-terrorism especially for radicalization matter. joining the interfaith program in order to eradicate conflict based on religion and try to spread up the value of religion through education approach is needed since the misconstrued interpretation of religion has the potential to increase the radicalization of the youth. That’s why before this thing happened, we need youth to understand the real value in order to counter-terrorism through a comprehensive educational approach.