14 November 2016 – Today, Balkans Group held another focus group with youth aged 18-35, in Ferizaj. The aim was to raise awareness and knowledge among youth about the consequences of radicalism and the importance of countering violent extremism ideologies, both, in words and practice. Discussions reflected limited willingness of the participants to talk about their personal problems with people outside their families. The group’s view is that the society is being caught upreared to face extremism. They state that society finds difficult to differentiate between extremism and radicalisation, which from their point of view is often used in a wrong context. The discussions elaborated extremism in the context of definition as a term and as an act. Common messaging of this target group are “I help community through education and not through extremism! and “Extremism is not in our tradition!”
