This year, Hedayah held its ninth International Research Conference, in conjunction with a Communications Expo in London from October 29th to November 1st, convening more than 300 attendees online and in-person from over 20 countries.
Following opening remarks from H.E. Ahmed AlQasimi (Executive Director, Hedayah), Owen Jenkins CMG (United Kingdom), H.E. Ismail Chekkori (Morocco) and H.E. Nadia Costantini (European Union), the conference kicked off with four days of in-depth analysis and programmatic thematics of countering extremism and terrorism.
The event brought together 60 speakers, presenters and moderators, and 18 sponsors and strategic partners for four days of discussion on key challenges and the newest findings in the field, including gender, youth, generative artificial intelligence, media and information literacy, cognitive and behavioural sciences, and the evolving role of technology. The host country for the event was the United Kingdom, with generous support for the conference provided by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office.
Hedayah is working in cooperation with the Albanian CVE Coordination Centre to build communities’ resilience. In November, Hedayah delivered 3 days of workshops in Albania to equip community and religious leaders with new communications skills and techniques, social media skills and knowledge of communications and messaging methods so that they can better build community resilience against extremist propaganda and ideologies.
Hedayah trained these leaders on how to describe the challenge, define the audience, set smart goals and objectives, choose the message and messenger, identify content type and content needs, create safe spaces and implement effective dialogues within communities, and how to evaluate the impact of the messaging campaign (social media analytics). Participants had the opportunity to apply and practice their skills in a 2-day hands-on training covering technical elements involved in the production and promotion of a messaging campaign.
Hedayah launched a new program focused on Building Youth Resilience and Preventing Online Extremism in Tunisia. This initiative is empowering young people by enhancing their critical thinking skills, enabling them to analyze and challenge extremist content and propaganda. The program is fostering local solutions tailored to the unique needs and practices of Tunisian communities, promoting media and information literacy while drawing on established best practices and tools for countering online extremism.
A key focus of the program is Hedayah working to enhance the capacity of governments and civil society to effectively combat extremist content and radicalization across digital platforms. Hedayah delivered two training courses to build the capacity of government and civil society stakeholders. The first training, completed in October, focused on building stakeholders’ capacity to identify and report harmful online content and leveraged the GCTF Curriculum. The second training was delivered in November and focused on building participants’ capacity to develop and disseminate counter-messaging to online harmful content.
Representatives from Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Advisor (ONSA) visited Hedayah in a two-day workshop on 11-12 December, as we embark on a significant partnership to support the review, design, and implementation of the country’s Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, through training, tailored made capacity-building programs, and the sharing of best practices.
This engagement with Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), with support from the EU-funded STRIVE Global Program, builds on the foundations of Hedayah’s existing work to support rehabilitation and reintegration from extremism in Nigeria through supporting families impacted by radicalization and establishing a cadre of national trainers capable of disseminating the program’s knowledge and skills to other practitioners and stakeholders.
As part of Hedayah’s ongoing support to the government of Iraq, together with the EU STRIVE Global fund, we aim to tackle extremism and violent extremism at both a community level and through the capacity strengthening of frontline practitioners.
Using our work on the adopted ASEAN Handbook on Promising Practices on Deradicalization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Prison Inmates related to Terrorism and Violent Extremism, Hedayah on 15-17 December was in Baghdad, Iraq training the ONSA and the Prisons Service on needs and Strengths Assessments. This training was the first step, and this work will continue with an advanced Training of Trainers in 2025.
Further, we are currently accepting applications from local community-based organisations to submit grants to assist ONSA in building the resilience of youth through art and sport activities.
Hedayah held its 16th International Steering Board meeting, where board members representing the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) were brought together to discuss the impact of Hedayah’s work in 2024, the lessons learned, and the plans to respond to emerging and future needs and opportunities.
Hedayah Welcomed Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Advisor (ONSA) for a two-day workshop, building on the foundations of Hedayah’s existing work to support rehabilitation and reintegration from extremism in Nigeria through supporting families impacted by radicalization.
H.E. Dr. Ali Al Nuaimi, Chair of the Hedayah International Steering Board, delivered the S R Nathan Distinguished lecture on “Religious Moderation from the Middle East to Southeast Asia” at the Middle East Institute – NUS in Singapore.
H.E. Ahmed Al Qasimi, Executive Director of Hedayah, met with Sodiqjon Toshboyev, Chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, to discuss ongoing collaboration in the context of our shared commitment to build community resilience against extremist ideologies.
Updates from Hedayah’s platforms:
Hedayah runs the Counter Extremism hub as an online community of practice to share research and information about preventing and countering extremism.
Scroll down to read a feature of recent research hosted on the hub.
30 Years of Trends in Terrorist and Extremist Games
Authors: Galen Englund, Emily Thompson
This report presents an analysis of that history using a unique dataset, the Extremist and Terrorist Games Database (ETGD), developed by the authors. It contains 155 reviewed entries of standalone games, modifications for existing games (mods) and browser‐based games dating from 1982 to 2024.
Assessing the impact of a video literacy program on emotional intelligence and resilience to extremism in primary school children Authors: Faryal Razzaq, Amna Siddiqui, Sana Ashfaq, Muhammad Bin Ashfaq, Glenn Muschert
This research aimed to enhance emotional awareness and engender empathy among primary school students in Pakistan through education, ultimately fostering emotional regulation and preventing disruptive behaviors. While emotional intelligence (EI) is increasingly recognized as a vital component in counter-terrorism efforts, it is seldom emphasized by young primary school students.
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