I ium asalam alaykum I bring you greetings from Sri Lanka every time I think of my country my heart is filled with pride and joy about my people I am proud to say I'm Sri Lankan but at the same time I'm reminded of what it was like growing up in the midst of conflict our nation was divided along ethnic lines and our people ended up in a brutal Civil War for 28 years and we were born into that now as a young child I didn't understand all the complexities of the war but I did understand
one thing a minority of extremists on either side of the ethnic divide manipulated and brainwashed young people to believe that violence was the only way to protect and preserve their ethnic identity and their rights and they raveled our nation into war a majority of moderates watched helplessly wondering what happened but as they grew up and had the opportunity of traveling to different parts of the world and working with young people I realized that this Narrative of extremists brainwashing young people and manipulating them for violence and their agendas is not something unique to Sri Lanka as
as we look around the world it's pretty obvious that this is a strategy widespread M23 M23 in Congo 969 in Myanmar 18 Street gang and other so many gangs across the states Boko Haram in Nigeria MS13 in Central America and Isis in the Middle East are all organizations that thrive on manipulating and brainwashing young people to pursue their agendas but this reality is this that what they will try to do is take young people tell them that demonizing entire ethnic group and tell them the reason for your Misfortune your inequality and injustices you're facing is
them and they need to be eliminated and then they would persuade them into violence and make them commit atrocities and at the end of the day the rights were never met these children never had Hope anyway but their agenda was pushed this process is called radicalization of young people I'd like to Define it as a process where youth are lured to hold extreme principles de iiz a certain community and embrace violence thus perpetuate a culture of violence this is a reality that truly is widespread but the reality is when we watch the 247 news cycle
shows us and bombards us with the news of what's happening around the world and the ordinary citizen is overwhelmed with various emotions we're watching this the acts of Terror all over the world and we are filled with emotions that that range from anger to fear confusion to helplessness but ladies and gentlemen today I want to ask the question are we truly helpless do we not have the capacity as ordinary citizens of global Society to make an impact and I'd like to explore that so let me take you back to my own country when I was
growing up you know uh we were so lived in so much fear because there were terrorists uh bombers would come into the City and blow themselves up and so when we said goodbye to our parents in the morning to go to school we were not sure if it could be a permanent goodbye there was this fear and anxiety and whenever an attack went the anger within us against the entire people group it was just a bunch of terrorists who did this but we had an animosity against the entire people group and we were filled with
hate I could not deal with it as a young person I was overwhelmed with bitterness and my heart was poisoned especially because radical elements would come and tell me we have to eradicate them they are the cancer of our society we have to the entire people group was demonized I would even watch the news and wait for the report from the Battlefront and when they say this many terrorists die I'll be yes I even had my own tally of saying we're going to get rid of them that was the level of hate but there were
two important factors that protected me in this journey and kept me away from becoming a violent individual and I want to share that with you as important counters to the radicalization of young people and the first one was I had Role Models mentors and parents who constantly questioned my increasing hatred and they helped me to see the broader perspective did you ever ask the question why a young boy would strap a buom around their waist and blow themselves up did you ask what grievances are there on the other side of the war and who's suffering
on the other side of the war do you can you have the right to generalize an entire people group based on the actions of a few these questions seared through my hate and protected me from embracing extremism the second component that helped me to stay out of it was the fact that I had friends outside my ethnic group outside my religious group and they constantly broaden my worldview gave me a capacity to think in a bigger way and not be fooled by extremists and their narrative I saw even my so-called enemies and opponents friendships that
I built with them made me realize that no not all of them are like this this is a small minority of extr and I cannot demonize an entire people group this helped me to stay away from violence I remember one of my friends from the north where the rebels were from said prashan why don't you come I'd like you to come and meet some of my friends I went there and I was amazed they're just like us all my life extremists told me they are monsters but hey they're just like us and I interacted with
them and as I was interacting I realized I met one boy I was very impressed with him and I told my friend this boy is very very sharp which school does he go to actually he doesn't go to school he's part of the terrorist movement immediately my mind went to me in my living room watching news and saying yes they're dead the numbers that I was counting and telling for dead also included innocent young boys who were brainwashed and manipulated and used ladies and gentlemen this is happening right now and I realized I had to
do something about it later on I real I heard that that boy didn't make it and when I went back I feel the same sense of helplessness that I mentioned earlier what can we do we are ordinary citizens what sort of impact could we have what sort of things do we do from the Grassroots from the bottom up and so we created a movement of young people that would say no to violence that we would provide young people the opportunity to have a broader worldview by interactions across ethnic lines we would give them the opportunity
to be mentored by people who love them and care for them and know that they'll sell the right things to them that would provide a resistance that extremists can't break through because extremists come say no one else cares about you we are the only ones no one will take but when they know there are mentors out there who speak truth into their lives who care for them who are in their lives there is a resistance you can break away from the poison and think for yourself and so we created this movement named Sri Lanka unites
young leaders from across the country bought them together and we found out that over 70% of our youth didn't have a friend outside their ethnicity and as they met each other they were amazed and they said wow all my life I thought these were monsters but I have things in common we can come together as a country our ethnic our desire for an ethnic identity destroyed our value for Humanity and we came together and it was amazing to see young people and we did it for seven years over 10,000 members joined the pledge and said
never will I go to violence I'm going to stand strong we were nobody we felt helpless but we knew we had an obligation to stand up and we were honored to have the opportunity we brought these leaders together we encouraged them and helped them see an idea of a new country what if we work together yes there are injustices yes there are grievances but let's work together in nonviolence and change society and we gave them the two most powerful weapons we can give we mentored them with love and truth and wisdom and two we made
sure they had interactions across ethnic lines that gave them enough of a resilience and resistance against extremist rhetoric that contined to try to brainwash them as we started it we were amazed that not only in Sri Lanka that there were other youth movements who said this is what we should do we started in Congo this and these young people in Congo decided they had lost over 6 million people in 15 years of war an estimate between 4 million to 6 million a horrendous War but these young people said enough is enough extremists have been radicalizing
and using young people and destroying their future this has to stop and they created this movement they came together I had the privilege of being with them last summer and their goal is that they'll be in every province in Congo wherever an extremist tries to go radicalize a young person we are also there to provide the counternarrative you say something we have an alternative too many young people in our world today don't hear the alternative yes there are injustices yes there are grievances but they believe that violence is the only option but if they hear
the other story the other narrative by mentors and experiences across ethnic lines and racial lines they will make better decisions and that is our goal I remember one young boy uh in Congo told me I was born into war I've grown up in war but I want to tell you something I guarantee you I will not die in this War I am going to protect the Next Generation I'm not going to let this hate ruin my country one another boy told me you know hate is like me drinking poison and hoping my enemies would die
it has to stop ladies and gentlemen today's terrorists today's extremist is yesterday's Young person looking for acceptance looking for an identity looking for an opportunity and that is the moment where you and I moderate Global Citizens need to be in their lives so the answer to our question we are most certainly not helpless we play a pivotal role in countering radicalization some of you will say but what about in the western world is that a problem oh it is through social media extremist terrorist organizations are recruiting young people across the Western world and the reason
has been there are marginalized religious groups and ethnic groups and racial groups within the Western world that they feel rejected from society they don't feel welcomed and as a result of that they are lured they slowly get backed right into the arms of extremists who are waiting to capture them and use them but what if you could prove that narrative wrong and say we do care we want to accept you wi you are one of us and we build those bridges I once heard the curse of poverty is not hunger but it's rejection you feel
like you're lesser you feel like you don't belong you feel like you're unworthy these marginalized communities want your acceptance and that will create an amazing resistance against extremist perspectives I'm not just talking about terrorists even gangs and criminals we can't continue to manage the symptoms of our issues we have to go upstream and deal with the deeper issues and be there for these young people when it matters you don't need to be an extraordinary person just be who you are where it matters in these lives because they do matter that is our journey that we
has we have to play so are we helpless no we are pivotal your life is significant you have a purpose and if evil and hate can do this much damage I want to let you know knowledge and love and commitment can do so much more good if you believe me let us start that Journey we can change this world it's not just a statement it's the truth would you'd uh do this exercise with me if you could can I have everybody take your index fingers and I want you to hit it against each other now
this is an insignificant sound but this is one person saying you know what I want to make a difference I'm committing my life to change and then because you do that you inspire a second person the second person starts realizing wow actually now we there's more momentum than we have and then you inspire a third Community get involved maybe the person you mentored starts doing it to a fourth Community as you put fourth the power has increased and finally when you all come together there is this amazing opportunity for change so yes we are little
we may start small but if we all work when we build momentum change will come thank you very much
