University student and graduate extremism on the rise

Extremism among higher education students and graduates across North Africa is on the rise. Growing numbers of educated young people from countries including Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Morocco are joining the Islamic State, or Daesh as it is known in Arabic, new figures show.

The latest statistics highlighting the spread of the extremism phenomenon in North Africa came from a 3 July report titled The Migration of Moroccan Fighters Descended from Northern Morocco to Syria and Iraq, published by the North Observatory for Human Rights.

The report revealed that 37% of Moroccans who joined the variously named Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Levant (ISIL) are university graduates studying for postgraduate degrees.

This figure is in line with a 2014 report by the Soufan Group, Foreign Fighters in Syria, which indicated that fighters from at least 81 countries had joined the civil war in Syria, with the highest numbers being from Tunisia (about 3,000), Saudi Arabia (about 2,500) and Morocco (about 1,500).

Also, on 1 July a Sudan Tribune report indicated that some 21 medical students of Sudanese origin studying at a private medical college in Khartoum had joined the Islamic State to work as volunteers in hospitals.

Extremist tactics on campuses

High participation by university students and graduates in Islamic State activities reflects its focus on student recruitment, as indicated in the organisation’s training manual.

Jihadists target people in isolated areas for recruitment because they “have a natural disposition for religion and it is easy to convince them and to shape them”, according to the manual.

High school and college students are also prime targets. From the manual:

“The university is like a place of isolation for a period of four, five, or six years and is full of youths (full of zeal, vigour and anti-government sentiments). However, you should be careful because it is also full of spies.

“[High school students] are young but tomorrow they will be adults, so if you don’t give them da'wa [proselytising of Islam] someone else will (but it will be for materialistic goals). However, don’t be in a hurry because haste in this matter might destroy the da’wa.

“The merits of this sector: 1. Often they have pure minds; 2. It is very safe to deal with them because they are not likely to be spies, especially after they pass the stage of individual da’wa.”

Fighting extremism on campuses

North African officials worried about citizens already engaged in extremist groups within the region or fighting under the Islamic State movement in the Middle East, are urging higher education institutions to fight extremism.

“No to religious extremism in our universities”, was the 4 July message sent by Algeria's Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal to Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Tahar Hadjar and the dean of law during a visit to the University of Algiers.

According to the North Africa Post, Sellal stressed the importance of directing the university to knowledge and fighting all forms of extremism.

“The university has an important role in training, the country’s development and stability,” he said, calling on university students to stay away from extremism as he reminded them that “our religion is Islam but we are against extremists”.

To revamp faltering efforts to blunt the extremist group’s online propaganda, a new counter-terrorism centre, based in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and called the Sawab Centre, was launched on 7 July.

The centre will focus on counter-propaganda aimed at undercutting the Islamic State’s appeal among young Arabs in the region, to help stem the flow of foreign fighters from the Middle East and North Africa.

Named after the Arabic word for ‘the right and spiritual path’, the centre will use direct online engagement to counter terrorist messaging that is used to recruit foreign fighters, to fundraise and to terrorise local populations.

The aim is for it to eventually become a global hub linked to similar centres around the world to share effective online content and strategies.