Egypt's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva Amr Ramadan has called on governments to give top priority to the adoption of security measures in countering terrorism. Egypt was chosen on Saturday to chair the United Nations Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC). The council is responsible for ensuring that the Security Council takes steps to criminalise terrorist acts, and for cutting sources of funding to blacklisted groups. The security solution will eradicate the threat of terrorism and prevent terrorists from attracting young people and turning them into the "terrorists of tomorrow", Ramadan said. The ambassador's comments came during the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism policy dialogue co-organised by the permanent missions of the United States and Morocco at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GSCP). Ramadan also expounded on the Egyptian experience in combating terrorism and extremism. He further referred to Egypt's participation in the international coalition against "Islamic State" (IS). In October, the interior ministry declared that 11,877 people had been arrested on terrorism-related charges. Providing various alternatives to eradicate extremism and terrorism is a necessity, according to Ramadan. He said the measures taken by Egypt were not limited to military strategies, referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's attempts to confront this global challenge through correcting and reforming religious discourse. Following the recent terrorist attacks around the world, Al-Azhar created an observatory board to monitor extreme fatwas, with Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawqy Allam declaring that false fatwas proved to be one of the main reasons behind extremism and terrorism. In the statements of the Egyptian ambassador, he said that the new Egyptian constitution has focused on the concept of equality in order to eradicate racism, which is one of the main reasons behind terrorism. Egypt has been facing a wave of terrorist attacks since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi in 2013. According to the Global Terrorism Index report for 2015, Egypt ranked 13th out of 124 countries that were highly impacted by terrorism. As part of Egypt's duties of heading the CTC, it will oversee the 15 members of the council and make sure they are implementing measures to counter terrorist organisations globally. This would include introducing legislation to criminalise terrorist acts and cut sources of funding to blacklisted groups.
