NGO Mladiinfo Montenegro attended a conference where the Center for Civic Education (CCE) presented the results of a public opinion survey on attitudes towards violent extremism and radicalism.
Petar Djukanovic, the coordinator of the Human Rights Program, said that young people are exposed to the topics of radicalization and extremism. According to the result of the CCE research, every other citizen does not expect to increase the quality of living standards for the better and consider institutions to not work in the interest of citizens. According to a survey of ¾ citizens, they feel safe in the place where they live and believe that organized crime, economic crisis, corruption, natural disasters and terrorism are the biggest threats to security.
“When it comes to trust, citizens are the most trusted members of the family, and the least about people with opposite political attitudes. The institutions that enjoy the most trust of the citizens are the church, the army and the police, and very little is trusted in the political parties and the prosecution, “said Djukanovic. A positive trend has been noted in civil society (media, NGOs), where confidence growth is noticeable. According to the survey, citizens have the greatest social distance to persons of opposite national and religious affiliation. It has been found that the most vulnerable groups that are discriminated against are just poor.
Also, most citizens stated that violence would not be justified as a means to achieve political goals. Most citizens identify themselves as Orthodox believers and consider religion to be very important in life. By examining citizens’ attitudes about the threat of extremism and radicalization, they are divided, while according to the opinion of most citizens, the media report insufficiently about radicalism and violent extremism. The police and the police are perceived as the most responsible for the prevention of radicalism and extremism.
On the one hand, more than half of the respondents said they would deter some of the idea of going to a foreign war zone, and on the other hand, fewer than half of the citizens consider returnees a security threat but would support their rehabilitation and reintegration. Citizens also believe that state institutions and returnee families need to take more account of this topic. At the end of the conference, Petar Djukanovic concluded that the geographical region that is potentially most susceptible to radicalism is the north of Montenegro due to a worse financial situation.