We see that it's breaking lots of international systems right now and possibly leading to the rise of right wing extremism . Migration is part of our story from the outset.The other really big thing that we do, that we're really known for and that's very unusual, is we share food.
Porque no va a otra persona detrás a quitar la taza que tú has utilizado en la cocina. Extremismos por todas partes.
that leads to extremism . The extremism leads to civil wars. Civil wars leads to immigration and refugees.
the threat that we had all been ignoring was on our doorstep and had grown so wealthy and had spread so vast across the world that Islamic extremism became almost overnight a household term. Now, there's still a difference between Al-Qaeda Islamic Shia extremism and what
So the first meeting, well, the first time we talked, we were both working for a global think tank called Against Violent Extremism . And I reached out-- Founded in part by Google Ideas, which was kind of exciting.
And so the resources of these countries, of course, are funneled to us at the expense of the general welfare of the population, creating the type of resentment that leads to extremism . The extremism leads to civil wars.
comes the excess, in that comes some of the extremism , and in that also comes some of the balance and the antidote to the extremism and the terrorism and the fanaticism that tilts the conversation in one direction. So the Taj Mahal, for example, most people around the world know it, but they don't appreciate the fact that this was a symbol of love from a Muslim monarch
Would we have Brexit? Would we have rising extremism as we've seen it? I think not. I think, as much as anything, what we're seeing is a failure of experts to be able to anticipate and understand
There's also massive disruption happening in politics. Not only extremism is growing, the capacity of people to recreate, as Macron did, from absolutely nothing, with no political party at all, a different alternative view is a sign of how easy it's becoming to change and to be a change maker.
He's here today to talk about his work as the co-founder of Life After Hate-- a nonprofit helping people disengaged from hate and violent extremism . He's also the author of "Romantic Violence-- Memoirs of an American Skinhead." Christian's life purpose is really born from an ongoing and a profound need to atone for his grisly past and to contribute to the greater good.
I don't want to interrupt you by the way. But in terms of extremism or extreme representation, and indeed misrepresentation, now we're
want you can't take good people and mistreat them and mistreat them and not open the doorway for extremism in our country we have if if listen if a Muslim a typical Muslim family is a family that most people want it's a family frankly Donald Trump wishes he
And so the churches have lost a lot of credibility. We look at violent extremism with Islam and things like that. That's not to impugn a religion, but people now are very scared to talk about religion.
I believe that the ideology of Islamism is one of the biggest obstacles standing before Muslims and their progress. as for extremism , we would encourage and support those civil society initiatives through industry, technology, third sector organizations, that try and build capacity to challenge extremism
their specificity their names and thats religion was now only reduced to one component which was extremism and if I talked about myself or appeared the way I do people would say oh but you're not
And I fear that comments from the current White House or what we've seen play out at the U.N. or the media drive that we have focuses entirely on the extremism and the violence, but misses a much deeper, more colorful nuanced history of coexistence, peace, compassion.
and also in the Muslim East, is the inability to articulate what the problem is. So if you say it's Islamist extremism , a whole group of people get upset, because the word Islam is in there. If you say it's jihadism, another group of people get upset, because the word jihad is in there.
And so it's almost trackable that the destruction of large empires and their peoples feeling loss, humiliation, degradation, then emerges in this ugly manifestation of extremism in those various excesses. Now Islamism was a reaction to that humiliating loss of Muslim power.
The Ottomans and others that mastered, you listen to the prayer call in either Istanbul or in other parts of the Muslim world that hasn't been influenced by extremism , is very melodious and intentionally so. And you go into the mosque, you see the architecture, the calligraphy exceptionally beautiful designed out of love, love to venerate the divine.
Although we celebrate it for its amazingly rapid advance, in fact, it was socially and politically a disastrous period. It was associated with rising extremism . And after this flourishing of diversity and tolerance in a city like Florence, we had Savonarola, an extremist monk,
uh uh be critical of ourselves or or is that giving into to would that be feeding islamophobia uh you know whether we have anything to do with extremism um you know I I think just just keep keep it in mind that you know when some when a Muslim speaks to you uh with with confidence uh it's unlikely that that confidence is well founded I think that
But still, even there, they would have to imitate the voice of the entire session. So if you're worried about Islamic extremism , and you think, OK well, we've got
Gerrymandering leads to something else which is extremism .
I'm really-- Let's go back to South End. How did you get involved with extremism in the first place? Nawaz: First of all, thank you for that introduction.
and the rewards for that extremism , this problem's only gonna get worse unless we start to take
was this emergence of religious extremism . And Sam Huntington, the late Harvard political scientist, put a framework on this. For my money, a very dangerous framework. He said
Osama bin Laden recruited into extremism when he's14 years old, right? The person who bombs
to be the foot soldiers of religious extremism . That's why on the evening news tonight, and tomorrow night, and the next night, you're gonna see some story of some young person
desperate, that's when extremism arises, right? So if you solve the problem of what are people going to do for meaningful work, you know, in the parts of the country that are feeling, you know,
the world that Islamic extremism became almost overnight a household term. Now, there's still a difference between Al-Qaeda Islamic Shia extremism and what is practiced in the Shia faith and with the outcomes that the Shia militants are trying to pursue
confident that oh the right can be back a challenge of extremism because there's no doubt listen to what literally ly Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, was
that is to offer an alternative to the extremism of Trumpism, not to mirror it.
We had a lot of problem of right-wing extremism after the fall of the Berlin Wall in that area, as I said.
This is also about making sure that the root causes of extremism , or migration flows, that they will not be nurtured simply
Get rid of them. So I think there is the global cool factor associated with extremism and terrorism.
It's pretty awesome. So Christian's an appointed United Nations affiliated ambassador IChange Nations and was honored with a National Statesman Award. He's also an associate for the USC Pride Homegrown Violent Extremism Program that I think you might be going into in your talk. And most recently, Christian won an Emmy award for directing and producing ExitUSA's "There Is Life After Hate" PSA, and he's been nominated for multiple regional awards.
solutions that counter all types of racism and violent extremism .
enormous political and legal battles against an IP extremism that defines the
Yes. Compared to the stories made by the extremism .
I wrote the book because, since 9/11 up until now, almost every Muslim conversation or conversation with Islam and Muslims in the public domain seems to be dominated by extremism , terrorism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, radicalism, and it's negative. And while I understand, and I think most of us understand, why that happens, the lived reality of Muslims is something entirely different.
And that impulse finds extreme manifestation through jihadists and others. Now, I just want to deal with the extremism problem, because it might be festering in your head on the definitional front, and then move on to other issues. And I touch on all of these issues in the book.
And I think actually if you look at hate speech or violent extremism online-- Yeah.
There are also different reasons in different places for the rise of extremism .
You believe-- you talk about music as a force for peace, as a way to fight extremism .
what's happening. There's an increasing amount of kind of extremism online on a whole range of different topics, from coronavirus to the shape of the planet Earth
Back then, I was working for Quilliam, the counter extremism think tank.
Why is that? Because by nature Wikipedia doesn't tolerate extremism .
So democracy writes their own stories, and they are very against the stories by extremism .
Often that's taught. But most Muslims, especially Muslim men, try to emulate the prophet Muhammad And in that comes the excess, in that comes some of the extremism , and in that also comes some of the balance and the antidote to the extremism and the terrorism and the fanaticism that tilts the conversation in one direction.
Although governments never want to agree or concede, they always give in to violence and extremism eventually.