Religious intolerance, poverty main drivers of terrorism, radicalization in PHL —US official

From GMA News Online (Jun 4, 2019): Religious intolerance, poverty main drivers of terrorism, radicalization in PHL —US official

A US State Department official on Tuesday said religious intolerance, poverty and lack of economic opportunities are among the major drivers of terrorism and radicalization in the Philippines.

Denise Natali, Assistant Secretary of the US State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, said these were among the key findings of a study conducted by Washington from December 2017 to May 2018.

“When people are religiously intolerant, greater dissatisfaction, people who are internally displaced and exposed to violence — these are vulnerabilities,” Natali told a group of journalists at a briefing.

With these factors in mind, Natali said a stronger counter-terrorism program with the strong involvement of civil society and local government units is needed to prevent global terror groups from developing a territorial foothold on an American ally in Asia.

“US-Philippines partnership is essential to all of us as we address the problem preventing and countering violent extremism,” she said.

“We not only respond to terrorist threats but we also work with partners to prevent radicalization towards extremist ideologies and the recruitment for terrorist groups.”

The siege of Marawi by ISIS-linked local militants in 2017 has significantly raised concerns on terrorist threats in the Southern Philippines and in Southeast Asia. The five-month insurrection left more than 1,000 mostly Muslim militants dead.

Natali said Washington’s counter-terrorism strategy emphasizes the need to counter radicalization and recruitment of terrorists by identifying signs of violent radicalization and globalization and providing local stakeholders the knowledge and resources that they need to address terrorist threats.

It will directly link the Philippine government with local government units to address “vulnerabilities” that spark violent extremism, she said.

“My bureau is in the process of finalizing a new program and partnership with the Philippine government and in alignment with the new national action plan to prevent and counter terrorism to support local units and local NGOs to design, implement and evaluate evidence-based countering violent extremism programs,” Natali said.

The three-year program, she said, will add to the existing P1.2 billion or $22 million that the US government currently spends to prevent and counter violent extremism.

Seven months after the Marawi siege, Natali said the US conducted a violent extremism study in the greater Mindanao region and consisted of interviews with 1,200 Muslim respondents across the four provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan and Sulu.

Citing the study, Natali revealed that support for violent extremism is high in some areas in Mindanao, particularly in Lanao del Sur and Sulu than in Basilan and Maguindanao.

Despite this, she said there remains strong support for government efforts to combat terrorism, with 89 percent of respondents saying violent extremism is considered the greatest fear more than general criminality and violence.

Support for violent extremism, she added, is local and not transnational.

“We found that support for transnational groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda was less than 5 percent,” Natali said. “Support for local violent extremist group such as Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and Daulah Islamiyah reached as high as 34 percent across all survey areas.”

The study, she said, was a by-product of the attack on Marawi which resulted to thousands of displaced individuals, a sense of economic deprivation, and grievances.

“Right now we are focusing on how to prevent further and future incidences of violent extremism and radicalization from occurring so that we don’t have another Marawi ever again,” Natali said.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/696604/religious-intolerance-poverty-main-drivers-of-terrorism-radicalization-in-phl-us-official/story/