In Industry Last updated 24 November 2016
A Birmingham City University professor appeared on American news network PBS this past week, speaking about how best to tackle religious radicalisation.
Dr Imran Awan, a member of the Centre for Applied Criminology, appeared alongside Nicola Benyahia, a mother from Birmingham whose 19-year old son Rasheed left home to Syria to join Islamic State.
A year ago, the family received word that Rasheed had been killed in a drone strike on the Iraqi-Syrian border. Prior to this, his mother felt Rasheed was “caught in a situation that he had absolutely no power over. He couldn’t get out”.
The PBS piece shows how several members of the Birmingham community are trying to combat the radicalisation process. Dr Awan thinks efforts must be focused online.
“So, I call it a digital revolution, where mosques and imam leaders are online and on the Internet. And I think they need to flood the Internet with countermessaging and sort of counter the ISIS propaganda. I think that’s a huge role.”