ANSAmed
The absence of a ruling class able to manage ethnic and religious minorities is one of the main causes of the fall of North African countries, according to Morocco’s ambassador to Italy, Hassan Abouyoub.
On the other hand, Tunisia’s major economic crisis, according to Tunisian lawmaker Imen Ben Mohamed, has favored the recruitment of youth by terrorist groups including ISIS.
These issues were debated at a congress on ‘Southern shores, new perspectives for the Mediterranean’, held in Trento at the initiative of the association Rondine Cittadella della Pace, in cooperation with the center for the creation of international solidarity of the autonomous province of Trento.
”No country – stressed Rabat’s ambassador – has succeeded in managing religious and cultural minorities, although here in Trentino and Alto Adige we find an excellent model of integration of cultural minorities”. However, he continued, ”apart from the absence of a vision, it is necessary to also confront the economic crisis: 400 million are estimated to be unemployed over the next 15 years in countries on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, but nobody has confronted the issue and the Arab League does not exist”.
”The European Union – stressed Imen Ben Mohamed, another member of the Tunisian Parliament – must feel that the Mediterranean is Europe, must consider Europe as the Mediterranean. Only in this way can inter-cultural and religious conflicts be reduced and the process of economic development in ‘Arab Spring’ countries boosted. Without the completion of economic development, the social rage of young Tunisians, who enroll in great numbers in extremist groups like IS, will not go away”.
Alaeddin Tantush, responsible of NGO One Libya, which participated in the project ‘Southern shore’, spoke about the strategic importance of cooperation between northern and southern countries of the Mediterranean, stressing that today a war by the western community ”could get things worse”.
(ANSAmed)
