If you’re one of those who doesn’t believe that sending vaguely precise drones, intervening in Syria, closing Western borders, or electing Trump is the solution to terrorism, you’re going to like FATE.
Families Against Terrorism and Extremism (FATE) is the biggest grassroots anti-extremism network in the world. It is one of the rare straight forward organisations involving families directly touched by terrorism that started powerful campaigns targeting vulnerable youths. Thanks to numerous surveys and in-depth interviews with a hundred families, FATE published a report showing that faced by a failure of any top down government approach, the civil society and particularly families are key to countering extremism.
FATE brings together 42 charities across eight countries. What it unusually brings together is also both families who lost relatives in terrorist attacks and families who lost relatives to terrorist organisations’ recruitment. For instance, Karolina Dam who founded her own association Sons And Daughters of The World after tragically losing her son in 2014 hit by an aerial strike in Syria where he had joined Daesh is an important member of FATE. The brother of Mohammed Merah who was responsible for the Toulouse attacks is also a member and active in fighting radicalization.
Researchers associated with FATE say that although the study was based in North Africa where terrorist organisations’ recruitment is ramping, the results are relevant worldwide. In fact, the BBC reported that, to date, about 850 UK-based people had traveled to support or fight along jihadists in Syria or Iraq. Well aware of that, FATE videos are all available in English, French and Arabic.
Moroccan Rapper Younes Taleb, better known for his stage names Mobydick or Lmoutchou, has always addressed the plague of terrorism in his tracks, through humor even with his “Lmoutchoukistan” video. He tells Scoop Empire he supports FATE because “we need a breath of fresh air.” The only way to counter the terrorist stereotype which always hits Arabs the hardest is to bring the “Arab youth that’s rich in culture, music, and art, who knows how to have fun and be happy” to the forefront, Taleb says. “It’s time to fight hatred, which can be appealing to lonely, misunderstood and easily influenced youngsters by highlighting the hopeful youth that we are. And our biggest weapon against that is culture, art and music,” the rapper confirms.
On Monday, more than 2000 families who have been affected in a way or another by terrorism will gather in Tunis, a year after the Paris Bataclan attacks as a result of which the organisation started. In both Greek and Roman mythology, the ‘Fates’ are three beautiful goddesses who preside over the birth and life of humans. More specifically, they would decide on our mere humans’ allotment of misery and suffering.
WE SAID THIS: The FATE organisation is one that asks each one of us to take control of the threads and #FindFate.