Assessment of Macedonia’s Efforts in Countering Violent Extremism. View from Civil Society
Assessment of Macedonia’s Efforts in Countering Violent Extremism. View from Civil Society

Author(s): Kaltrina Selimi, Filip Stojkovski
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Criminology, Identity of Collectives, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Аналитика Тинк-тенк Организација
Keywords: terrorism; radicalization of islam;
Summary/Abstract: Acknowledging that the threat of terrorism on European soil has grown over the past several years, the European Commission (EC) on December 2nd, 2015, in wake of the Paris attacks, adopted a two-fold package to better address this threat5. According to an EC report, foreign fighters were involved in at least 6 terrorist attacks in the EU in 2015. According to the Commission,” The existing rules need to be aligned, taking into account the changing terrorist threat Europe is facing”6. Extremist groups like ISIS, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and others have used indiscriminate violence and violated human rights on many occasions. Despite their inhumane activities, these groups still manage to attract followers. This fact shows that one cannot combat these groups by countering their acts of terrorism alone, but one must also address and combat the ideologies of violent extremism that they spread. It is crucial to comprehend the ideas behind the phenomenon of violent extremism and the reasons why people join these radical groups. Policymakers often do not necessarily fully understand the complexity of the phenomenon and therefore might inadvertently make policy decisions that are not necessarily the best choice or provide only a partial solution, and may have negative consequences.

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