Fighting for Peace

To strengthen the resilience of Muslim communities against extremism

Fighting for peace trains community leaders within Muslim communities in organizing and leading small scale dialogue events on the topic of radicalization. These community leaders can be both formal and informal leaders. An example of such community leaders are for instance an imam or a volunteer working at a community center. A prerequisite is that these community leaders are trusted by the community. The training focuses both on transferring knowledge on the topic of radicalization, extremism and resilience as on sharing experiences between participants. After having received training community leaders organize small scale dialogue events for youngsters and/or parents within the Muslim communities. The goal of these events is to contribute to strengthening the resilience of the community against extremism. Topics that are discussed are for instance: feeling part of society, dealing with injustice or the communication between parents and children. Fighting for peace has experienced that by discussing these topics communities have become more open towards discussing the issue of radicalization and take an active stance in countering radicalization.

Examples of questions that are discussed are the following:

• You are confronted with injustice, negative depictions of Muslims in the media and discrimination. What can you do to counter this? How do you take responsibility? What can you do to counter radicalization?
• How come youngsters do not radicalize? By focusing on the reasons why youngsters not radicalize, instead of why some of them radicalize, much can be learned about the elements of resilience.

http://www.spior.nl/preventie-radicalisering-2/