New Delhi: Reforms in the traditional education system and empowering women are the two major agendas Morocco is following in its efforts to counter terrorism and radicalisation, a top diplomat of the North African nation has said.

"We still have the problem of dealing with the traditional education system," Assia Ben Salah Alaoui, Ambassador at large for Moroccan King Mohammed VI said in a speech on "Morocco's Security Strategy: Preventing Terrorism and Countering Extremism" organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) think tank here on Wednesday.

She said that families were being engaged to ensure that children were not radicalised at a young age.

Alaoui said that the idea that women and Islam are incompatible, just as democracy and Islam are incompatible, should be revoked. "Women business organisations are being helped in our country," she stated.

According to Aaloui, religion today has become a very minor factor in the radicalisation of people for terrorism. She said that those being targeted were from poor and malnourished backgrounds and were being paid on a monthly basis by the terrorist organisations like the Islamic State.

She said that religion still retains a role in this global menace because of people in Europe.

"These people have lost touch with their culture. They do not know religion, they don't know the origin of their culture," the Ambassador stated. "The terrorists are promising them dreams of going to paradise."

Aaloui said that in her country imams are being trained to propagate moderate Islam. "In Morocco, we have created the Foundation of African Ulema that is working hard to spread moderate Islam."

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.

RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.

In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.

In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.

RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.

In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.

Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.

Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.

RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.

Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.

Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.