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Education, extremism and fourth generation wars

The young politician confronted me and said: Imagine, doctor, that a friend of mine from university days was arrested in a case of terrorism, and he did not show signs of violence or extremism during his school days. What makes young people like us extremists in thought and style, and turn their situation in this way?
I said: There is still a lot to learn about extremism, my son, as I have not seen enough research that sheds light on the different psychological pathways that can lead people to adopt religious or political extremist action.
Even after the 2011 revolution, I did not see research on the type of youth who were in Tahrir in the early days and their relationship to those who were present in the last days.. I did not see an analysis of the chants and the times they were broadcast, nor of the type of youth present, nor the degree of their education.
Unfortunately, we lack the scientific method that relies on social research to know the origins of extremism and are drawn to opinions that may be important but may not statistically reflect a scientific fact stemming from extensive research over a number of years.
I believe that those who find it difficult to adapt to new and changing intellectual requirements or conditions tend to have more intense ideological and ideological views on politics, nationalism, and religion, are inflexible and are more willing to support violence.
His colleague said: What is the relationship of extremism to the wars of the fourth and fifth generations, and how do we face that?
I said: The wars of the fourth and fifth generations are won by those who possess the tools of influence, and who are able to possess the minds and conscience of others. These are internal and external wars, and we must take initiatives in education, culture and media that spread the culture of modernity, the use of knowledge, the search for sources, and the disbelief of rumors and trends.
Science has proven that the impression that others may create becomes after a time a reality that does not need proof. Rather, some defend it, revolt and fight for it, and it is a creature of groups, intelligence services, or media directed with goals to achieve, and may lead nations to failure and collapse, and may eliminate the identity, and the society questions its history and pushes it to reject its present and kills hope for its future.
The first young man said: So you say that creating and feeding extremism in Egypt is a type of fourth and fifth generation wars to break up the stability of society.
I said: Yes, the transformation of Egyptian society from modernity to reaction, and from civil to religious, and the absence of Egyptian influence with its soft and smart forces on the region is in the interest of those who want to dominate the capabilities of the Middle East militarily, economically and culturally.
The glaring young woman said: You mean Israel? How is that counteracted?
I said: First, Egypt’s competitors for influence are Israel, Iran and Turkey. Secondly, thought can only be resisted by thought, which is the task of intellectuals and community leaders. Unfortunately, over the past decades, this battle was the task of the security services only, not because of the laziness of civil society, but also because these agencies do not trust it and do not allow it to interfere in what they think of as a security act only. The battle without equivocation was against society, which led to the pervasiveness of extremist religious thought, and the Muslim Brotherhood reached the hijacking of the youth revolution in January 2011, and even to the rule of the country as a president and legislative institutions. Which threatens to spread more widely in the coming years, contrary to what we wish for modernity, progress and enlightenment.
The young man said: But we got rid of the rule of the Brotherhood!
I said: The awakening of the Egyptian people on June 30 freed society from the Brotherhood’s terrorism and leadership and their coloring of society with fanaticism and rejection of all differences and violation of the rights of citizenship, but the whole region is still suffering from them and their ilk, unfortunately, the fuel of extremism and terrorism is mostly young people, and many of them are educated and graduates The best colleges.
It is true that the Egyptian people’s movement got rid of the Brotherhood’s rule because they coveted the rule. As for the reactionary conservative Salafist thought that infiltrated the society’s conscience, it did not disappear, but I see it becoming more and more widespread, and it appears clearly in the reactions of the social media to the privacy of members of society, and even the intervention of official state agencies for an image that is published without permission. Its owners here or a special celebration there, and in the arrest of those with an opinion that contradicts the religious Salafist norms and the attack on art and artists in Parliament. Rather, the official Ifta House issued a fatwa on women’s clothing in Egypt, and what they reveal and hide in a precedent that has not happened before. I began to suspect that the groups for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice that are disappearing from the Saudi street began to appear in Egypt, and as Professor Mahmoud al-Saadani told me one day in a similar situation about communism, may God have mercy on him: “The factory is closed there, and the agent is working more in Egypt.” Which applies in some way to the ancestral spread of ideas.
The angry young woman said: Frankly, Doctor, your generation and those before you are the reason for what we are in, by your failure in front of the reactionary trend, and you are the educated and educated.
I said: You are right, my daughter. The trend of modernity and enlightenment does not have a sustainable existence. With every change of the nominal system of government, the trend of reaction appears and grows stronger.
Those who can protect the Egyptian identity and the homeland are our young people who have been in our classrooms for 18 consecutive years. How do the planners of the fourth and fifth generation wars reach them, questioning them about their history and withdraw hope from their conscience, so they turn to demolition, not construction? This is what we must work on, and it is included in our efforts to develop educational, media and cultural institutions in the country.
Confronting this is not the responsibility of the security, intelligence and oversight authorities. Rather, the responsibility lies more on civil society and the ministries of information, youth, sports, culture and education, which I do not see working in effective harmony in building a conscious personality.
Another young man said: What makes false news and rumors have such an effect?
I said: One of the things that drive the spread of fake news, which by its repetition becomes reality, is cognitive laziness and the ease for people to see reality through the lens of their political and religious affiliations, and to be
Noah is excited to see fake news as real because it corresponds to what they want it to be, things that can be avoided with education.
The same young woman said: Why is religious extremism increasing in particular?
I said: The conflict that exists in the world is not between good and evil, but is always the belief of one person against the belief of another person.. Absolutes are the shortest way that makes man without alternatives, and he is controlled by those who claim to have a connection with God. Then religion turns into a problem instead of its main divine goal, which is love and acquaintance, because we reduce it to become only the metaphysics and teachings of men and interpreters, and not spirituality and values ​​agreed upon among all religions.
The young man said: And the solution?
I said: Things return to education, its quality and methods. Guys, the issue is not only in the curriculum being taught, nor in tablets and technology, but in coexistence within the educational institution that is affected by the teacher and professor and the cultural climate they create.
Solutions are available, but they must be sustained and not changed by changing governments. The impact of education is long-term and slow because it occurs across generations. And if there are wars of the fourth and fifth generations that disrupt our youth and build troubled generations that do not trust themselves, let us look in the arena of education, for the real battle is there.