NEW YORK, Feb 02 (IPS) – Azza Karam is the Secretary General of Religions for Peace, and Professor of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.For more than two decades, the mantra was “PVE” (preventing violent extremism) and/or “CVE” (countering violent extremism).
Millions of dollars were spent, new NGOs and think tanks emerged, government policy papers were drafted, countless books and articles were published, large and small scale initiatives developed – indeed almost an entire industry in development and foreign policy spaces thrived.