Children's Literature as a Front in the War on Terror: Ineffective Policy, Ineffective Literature

Morocco is often praised for its proactive and innovative CVE (countering violent extremism) programme. This article analyses a three-part Arabic-language book series, Ma' Argir rya Basma [With Nasir and Basma], produced by an organ of the Moroccan religious bureaucracy, the Mohammedan League of Religious Scholars, that ostensibly seeks to discourage adolescents from being susceptible to recruitment to VE (violent extremist) organisations. Starring two young Moroccan children, these books portray jihadists as old, ridiculous, or inept and the main characters as in need of protection by a paternalistic state, leaving children, especially young men, underprepared for the recruiting (gods of such organisations. The books emphasise state intervention over child action, suggesting the books are directed more at Western investors in need of reassurance than at children, supporting the critique made by some observers that CVE is more about security theatre than preventing violence.