International speakers explore education’s role in countering radicalization during the Global Goals Week online event.
Doha: International speakers at a session hosted by Hamad Bin Khalifa University, member of Qatar Foundation, have reflected how education’s role in keeping extremism at bay is perhaps more crucial than ever in the post COVID-19 era.
‘Educate to Eradicate: Extremism – What’s Next In A Post COVID-19 Reality?’ was held as part of a series of online sessions organised by Qatar Foundation and its members to align with Global Goals Week.
According to Dr. Khalid Koser, Executive Director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, university chiefs can be unnerved by the risk of their students becoming radicalised.
“Universities have a role in broadcasting knowledge and inspiring young people, but they can also be breeding grounds for violent extremism and radicalisation. So working with universities and university leaders to make sure they have policies and procedures to guard against radicalisation in their own halls is the first step we need to take,” he said.
“Public confidence is critical in countering extremism, and in most countries universities and academics are seen as objective and committed to science rather than having a political agenda. Universities also have a clear role in trying to help us understand this field. But it’s still fairly unclear what drives people to extremism, and universities can add real value in this area,” he added.
He also highlighted that many young people are global citizens when it comes to inequality and climate change, but still countering violent extremism is seen by them as a global public good. “Trying to get this more onto the agenda and raising the realisation that preventing violent extremism is not just in the national security interest, but helps the world to be a better place, is important,” said Dr. Koser.
The discussion was moderated by Dr. Susan L Karamanian, Dean of HBKU’s College of Law. The panel also featured William Braniff, Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, Colette Mazzucelli, Senior Vice President at Global Listening Centre and Professor at New York University and Dr. Leslie A Pal, Founding Dean of College of Public Policy at HBKU.
“Humans really struggle with uncertainty, and when science fails to provide it, it’s easy for extremists to attack science and promote their own black and white ideologies that offer certainty in an uncertain world,” said William Braniff.
“It’s a tremendous challenge, and part of the solution lies in teaching young people to be critical consumers of information, encouraging them to be ambassadors for science, and teach them that it’s not enough to have the right information if you can’t communicate it properly and influence citizens’ behaviour in positive ways,” he added.
