Project Nur student’s gathered to discuss the prevailing role of social media in recruiting Westerners to join the ranks of ISIS. Students from George Washington University, George Mason University, and North Virginia Community College attended the Workshop.
PN Program Coordinators, Alexa Mencia and Sumer Shaikh, began the workshop by presenting on the use of Twitter by ISIS, case studies of recruited individuals, and the shortcomings of the criminal justice system in dealing with Western’s recruited by ISIS. Following the presentation, student’s discussed how to combat extremism online, the need for strong moderate Muslim voices, characteristics of at-risk youth, and alternative intervention and reintegration strategies for those at-risk.
The workshop was followed up with a cybersecurity event that highlighted the importance of Community Awareness among the youth. The event focused on outreach and engagement programs in the different communities throughout the United States.
These programs have a lot of diversity in the people they engage with and aim to get rid of the misunderstandings about the government and law enforcement. Our main goal for this event is to inform the youth of the dangers of exchanging information online and to educate them on government programs that focus on radicalization.
