Paris (AsiaNews / Agencies) - According to Queen Rania of Jordan, moderate Muslims are not doing "enough" to combat the "evil ideology" of the Islamic state (IS), and she is asking the international community to pay greater attention to young people, before the Middle East is "devastated".
The Queen of Jordan is in France for a series of meetings with groups of businessmen and universities. In the various meetings she stressed that helping young people in the Middle East is crucial to fighting against Daesh (Arabic acronym of IS)
Daesh – she said - she continues to spread its evil ideology" and "change the local perception of our region". " Moderate Muslims the world over are not doing enough to win the ideological struggle at the heart of this battle.
"We're not actively helping Daesh, - she added - but we're not actively stopping them either. We can't stand against them until we as Muslims agree on what we stand for."
Queen Rania said focusing on the youth of the Middle East -- many of whom are unemployed or forced to flee their countries -- was a necessity. They need "education, opportunities, work and... also a little bit of luck, that someone believes in them.."
According to the Queen at least 100 thousand jobs are needed by 2020 to prevent frustrated young people joining the military ranks of the jihadists.
"Failure - she concluded - is not an option because if we fail in the face of these extremists and if they win, the region will quickly be devastated " producing global repercussions.