INTERVIEW: Nigeria and Egypt Collaborate to Defeat Terrorism - Ambassador of Egypt
In this second part of the interview with the Egyptian Ambassador, he talks about the 2013 unrest in Egypt, the collaboration between Nigeria and Egypt to fight terrorism and other topics. Read the first part of the interview here.
Excerpts:
PT: Egypt is a country with a large Muslim population. How does the country deal with violent extremism?
Mr. Awab: Egypt has been fighting terrorism and radical ideas since the 80s. Let's not forget that one of our presidents was assassinated by these elements, so Egypt is a pioneer in facing this challenge. And at some point, we felt we were alone in this challenge, especially when we lost one of our great leaders to these elements.
We have been at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and radical and extremist ideologies for more than 40 years, so it is a fact. We've gone through trial and error to figure out how to do it in the most efficient and effective way for 40 years and I can say that we've had some pretty good successes at different stages and times in our history.
>We also have the benefit of the history of the Al-Azhar Institute in Egypt as a champion and beacon of moderate Islam over the centuries, which is what Al-Azhar is. And that is why extremist ideologies were fought mainly behind the teachings of Al-Azhar.
Al-Azhar has tools and instruments and a very solid, solid and credible scientific foundation that Islam is a religion of moderation, a religion that encourages coexistence and a religion that does not take extremism and radicalism as a form of thinking about what the world should look like.
Not only what the government was able to do to combat terrorist organizations and the violence they inflicted on our society, but we also knew that society must understand when terrorists try to penetrate their minds with terrorist ideologies . This is where I think we are in a very good position to have a comprehensive way to counter terrorism and extremism; and that's the kind of benefit that I think we can claim and emissaries of Al-Azhar are now all over the world, including in Nigeria, helping governments to ensure that younger generations understand and can differentiate between bad ideology and the true nature and spirit of Islam, which is moderation and coexistence. We are not doing this just for ourselves, we have started to deploy our knowledge to help and serve all Muslim society all over the world.
PT: This brings me to the security relationship between Nigeria and Egypt. There are not many details about what this relationship is and I would like you to provide them.
Mr. Awab: By nature, security relations are confidential between governments and there is a lot of movement and it is not something that started yesterday. It is a long-standing collaboration and cooperation between the two countries - security relations that take the form of information exchange, exchange of experience in certain fields and an agreement on a common approach to the security challenges facing Africa.
The most important element here is that we no longer look at North Africa, the Sahel, West Africa in isolation as if they were separate geographical spaces. Today's security challenges, whether it be terrorism, organized crime, illegal migration, human trafficking, drug trafficking, illicit trade in small arms, many of these things do not stop not to certain geographical sub-regions in Africa. So, what affects Nigeria in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel and even in the Gulf of Guinea will affect the interests of Niger, Sudan, Libya; this will affect trade relations that pass through the Gulf of Guinea. There is therefore no longer any geographical isolation of countries and this is something both countries agree on and this is why security relations go beyond terrorism alone. The security challenges are many and at different levels and I can say that we are jointly engaged at all of these different levels with information exchange, training, capacity building and many of these joint cooperation.
PT: Egypt was described as not free; as stifling human rights, freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Is this a fair assessment of the current administration and of Egypt?
In this second part of the interview with the Egyptian Ambassador, he talks about the 2013 unrest in Egypt, the collaboration between Nigeria and Egypt to fight terrorism and other topics. Read the first part of the interview here.
Excerpts:
PT: Egypt is a country with a large Muslim population. How does the country deal with violent extremism?
Mr. Awab: Egypt has been fighting terrorism and radical ideas since the 80s. Let's not forget that one of our presidents was assassinated by these elements, so Egypt is a pioneer in facing this challenge. And at some point, we felt we were alone in this challenge, especially when we lost one of our great leaders to these elements.
We have been at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and radical and extremist ideologies for more than 40 years, so it is a fact. We've gone through trial and error to figure out how to do it in the most efficient and effective way for 40 years and I can say that we've had some pretty good successes at different stages and times in our history.
>We also have the benefit of the history of the Al-Azhar Institute in Egypt as a champion and beacon of moderate Islam over the centuries, which is what Al-Azhar is. And that is why extremist ideologies were fought mainly behind the teachings of Al-Azhar.
Al-Azhar has tools and instruments and a very solid, solid and credible scientific foundation that Islam is a religion of moderation, a religion that encourages coexistence and a religion that does not take extremism and radicalism as a form of thinking about what the world should look like.
Not only what the government was able to do to combat terrorist organizations and the violence they inflicted on our society, but we also knew that society must understand when terrorists try to penetrate their minds with terrorist ideologies . This is where I think we are in a very good position to have a comprehensive way to counter terrorism and extremism; and that's the kind of benefit that I think we can claim and emissaries of Al-Azhar are now all over the world, including in Nigeria, helping governments to ensure that younger generations understand and can differentiate between bad ideology and the true nature and spirit of Islam, which is moderation and coexistence. We are not doing this just for ourselves, we have started to deploy our knowledge to help and serve all Muslim society all over the world.
PT: This brings me to the security relationship between Nigeria and Egypt. There are not many details about what this relationship is and I would like you to provide them.
Mr. Awab: By nature, security relations are confidential between governments and there is a lot of movement and it is not something that started yesterday. It is a long-standing collaboration and cooperation between the two countries - security relations that take the form of information exchange, exchange of experience in certain fields and an agreement on a common approach to the security challenges facing Africa.
The most important element here is that we no longer look at North Africa, the Sahel, West Africa in isolation as if they were separate geographical spaces. Today's security challenges, whether it be terrorism, organized crime, illegal migration, human trafficking, drug trafficking, illicit trade in small arms, many of these things do not stop not to certain geographical sub-regions in Africa. So, what affects Nigeria in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel and even in the Gulf of Guinea will affect the interests of Niger, Sudan, Libya; this will affect trade relations that pass through the Gulf of Guinea. There is therefore no longer any geographical isolation of countries and this is something both countries agree on and this is why security relations go beyond terrorism alone. The security challenges are many and at different levels and I can say that we are jointly engaged at all of these different levels with information exchange, training, capacity building and many of these joint cooperation.
PT: Egypt was described as not free; as stifling human rights, freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Is this a fair assessment of the current administration and of Egypt?
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