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Countering Extremism Together

Creating counter-narrative videos; empowering civil society; challenging extremism together

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Countering Extremism Together

Countering Extremism Together

Countering Extremism Together

Countering Extremism Together

Countering Extremism Together

Creating counter-narrative videos; empowering civil society; challenging extremism together

Creating counter-narrative videos; empowering civil society; challenging extremism together

Creating counter-narrative videos; empowering civil society; challenging extremism together

Creating counter-narrative videos; empowering civil society; challenging extremism together

Quilliam Foundation
Quilliam Foundation
Quilliam Foundation
Quilliam Foundation
2 Campaigns |
London, United Kingdom
$21,834 USD $21,834 USD 236 backers
69% of $31,508 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 2 Projects Mountain Filled 2 Projects

Why we are running our campaign

More and more people around the world are joining terrorist groups such as Islamic State, killing innocent people, promoting hatred and adding to the misery of the Syrian people.

They have been drawn to do this a result of being radicalised. Islamist extremist organisations promote a hateful worldview which seeks to destroy freedom, democracy, human rights, and the belief that communities should coexist peacefully. In their destructive path to boost recruitment, they radicalise vulnerable people all around the world by perverting the religion of Islam for their own gain. When they target individuals, they exploit identity crisis, heartfelt grievances and other societal problems, offering “solutions” which only serve to exacerbate all of these.

Together as a society, with people from all backgrounds, religious denominations and political leanings, we can fight back against this hatred. Three things are important to this:

1)  Building resilience to prevent vulnerable people from falling prey to extremism. We can do this by addressing all the things that extremists exploit and demonstrating what makes living and engaging in a pluralist and democratic society so great.

2)  Raising awareness of radicalisation and the actions of extremist groups that want to curb your freedoms. We can do this by analysing extremist organisations, cutting through their propaganda to see the truth, and understanding how they came about.

3)  Promoting the best ways to tackle extremism in an effective, responsible and proportionate way, free of racism and anti-Muslim hatred, sensationalism and apologia. We can do this by learning from previous successful and unsuccessful efforts to tackle extremism, here in the UK and all around the world.

The campaign

We need your help to raise £25,000 to help us address extremism through the medium of film, for two main reasons. Firstly, it is clear that extremist organisations are increasingly adept at using technology and producing professional video content to achieve their aims of radicalisation and recruitment. Secondly, one of our main beliefs is that effectively countering extremism requires a civil society approach - financial support from global citizens united in the fight against extremism is a great way that our supporters can take ownership of this with positive action.

Your generous donations and support will help fight back against extremism by funding the production of three counter-narrative videos, targeted at the three areas listed above: building resilience, raising awareness, and promoting best practice. In addition, we will also be able to produce an educational animated video explaining Quilliam’s approach to counter-extremism

The creation of counter-narrative videos will help towards our day-to-day work to do the following:

  • Challenging Islamist ideology: The videos will help create effective counter-narratives which challenge the foundations of the hateful ideology which seeks to corrupt individuals to cause harm. Tackling the cause of extremism as a society, the ideology which underpins terrorist actions, will help ensure a safer environment for us all in the long-term.
  • Increasing education and awareness: Through encouraging civil society to actively engage in the creation and promotion of counter-extremism videos we can help increase awareness of the difference between Islamist ideology and Islam as spiritual faith practised by over a billion Muslims around the world today.
  • Tackling the rise of anti-politics sentiment:  By coming together and actively challenging these views by donating, sharing videos through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube as well as other social media platforms, we can work together to promote democratic ways of achieving real change and persuade others that joining extremist groups won’t help.
  • Addressing grievances: Many people justifiably oppose political decisions, find injustice reprehensible, or have experienced prejudice first hand. We stand in solidarity with those people and want to help everyone find peaceful, democratic and productive ways of addressing these issues, without resorting to myopic extremist narratives that paint all such grievances as evidence of a targeted conspiracy against Muslims.
  • Engaging communities: To effectively counter extremism, we need a civil society approach. Vital to the success of this approach is the co-operation of Muslim communities, who are often the first victims of terrorism, have had their religion manipulated by the few violent extremists among them, and live with the negative consequences of their actions. We want to promote the active involvement of Muslims in this generational struggle.
  • Promoting pluralism: Extremists love to target vulnerable people who aren’t sure of their place in society or of their identity. While it is completely normal to experience an identity crisis and to be unsure of the compatibility between nationality, religion, ethnicity and sexuality, extremists claim that you can overcome this feeling by following Islamism. Instead, pluralism is the only way that people can feel truly comfortable.
  • Countering extremism of all kinds: Extremism breeds extremism, and it is unacceptable to approach Islamism through a far-right lens, blaming all Muslims for the actions of several extremists, or by stooping to the low level of ignorant bigotry. It is important that we show consistent, responsible, proportionate ways of challenging all extremisms in our society that can make real change for the better.

Additional ways of getting involved

We don’t want to be the only ones making counter-narrative videos. If you are between the ages of 16-24, you can enter our #OpenYourEyes video competition. Create a short video addressing one of the following issues:

  • Why religion mustn’t be abused to promote violence
  • Talk someone out of expressing themselves through violence against themselves or others
  • Why a multi-faith environment is positive
  • Can the internet take over your life?

It could be a monologue or a song, a cartoon, a mime, a comedy sketch or anything else that you feel captures the imagination.

Use your phones, iPads, cameras or any other media device.

Please upload your film at www.wetransfer.com and then paste the link to your film in the form on our website http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/openyoureyes/ . Film resolution should be at least 1024×768 pixels. If you are recording the film from an iPhone/iPad or other mobile device, try using the HDR option for best results. Be interesting. Be bold. Be quirky. Be innovative.

For more information, visit the competition page on the Quilliam website: http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/openyoureyes/

How your money will be spent:

The money donated will be used to create a number of professionally filmed and edited counter-extremism videos as well as equipment which will allow for the creation of in-house counter-extremism videos.

Creating effective counter-narrative videos will require videos filmed using sophisticated cameras allowing for high definition content. We will enlist professional filmmakers who are enthusiastic about film and artistic creation with experience across a number of aspects of the film industry, including directing, producing, as well as audio and visual engineering. The videos will be professionally edited, maximising the effects and reach of each counter-narrative video. 

The knowledge and experience of the filmmakers used will help enrich video content produced, allowing us to capitalise on the medium of film to help challenge extremist ideology. Information is increasingly being absorbed through video content as opposed to traditional mediums such as books. Studies show that the medium of film increases understanding of issues, increases information retention, which in turn promotes civil society engagement and debate. With over 100 million users viewing at least one video online each day, professionally produced counter-extremism videos will allow us to effectively reach a worldwide audience in order to promote a long-term civil society push back against an ideology which seeks to promote hatred to undermine freedom.

About Quilliam

Quilliam is the world’s first counter-extremism think tank set up to address the challenges of citizenship, identity, and belonging in a globalised world. Quilliam stands for religious freedom, equality, human rights and democracy. We engage in innovative research, training and public messaging to do the following:

  • Challenge extremist ideology to expose the intellectual bankruptcy of the extremist worldview
  • Promote pluralism as an antidote to Islamism
  • Inspire positive change so that Muslims and others live harmoniously as citizens, not as separatist communities

Quilliam has consistently been at the forefront of countering extremism in the UK, since we were established in 2008. Some of our senior members of staff were formerly Islamist extremists themselves and this personal insight into extremist organisations shapes our analysis of how to counter the phenomenon of radicalisation. The experience of being involved in counter-extremism and shaping policy on the issue in the last 7 years, coupled with the academic expertise of some staff members means Quilliam continues to be intrinsic to the debate. Our work and approach remain vitally important, especially as the threat from extremism and terrorism to the UK and Europe is now greater than at any point since 9/11.

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Choose your Perk

Your Name in Video Credits

Currency Conversion $13 USD
£10 GBP
Your name will appear in the credits of one of the counter-narrative videos under the Special Thanks section.
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
39 claimed

Friends' Circle Membership

Currency Conversion $32 USD
£25 GBP
You will receive membership to our Friends’ Circle, entitling you to pre-release copies of our publications and VIP invitations to Quilliam public events You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £25 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
43 claimed

Glow in the Dark Wristband

Currency Conversion $63 USD
£50 GBP
You will receive a limited edition #OpenYourEyes glow in the dark wristband, promoting Quilliam’s #OpenYourEyes video competition to engage 16-24 year olds in counter-extremism (more details below) You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £50 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
12 claimed

Publication Bundle

Currency Conversion $126 USD
£100 GBP
You will receive a Quilliam Publication Bundle, featuring a range of our publications including Islamic State: The Changing Face of Modern Jihadism; Jihad Trending: A Comprehensive Analysis of Online Extremism and How to Counter It; In and Out of Islam; Pulling Together to Defeat Terror; and No Compulsion is Religion: Islam and the Freedom of Belief You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £100 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
9 out of 25 of claimed

Signed Copy of RADICAL

Currency Conversion $315 USD
£250 GBP
You will receive a signed copy of the book RADICAL with a personal message from Maajid Nawaz You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £250 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
8 claimed

Personal Skype Call

Currency Conversion $630 USD
£500 GBP
You will receive a personal thank you call on Skype from a senior member of Quilliam You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £500 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
1 claimed

Name as an Associate Producer

Currency Conversion $945 USD
£750 GBP
Your name will appear as an associate producer in the credits of all of the counter-narrative videos You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £750 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
0 claimed

2 Advanced VIP tickets to Ball

Currency Conversion $1,890 USD
£1,500 GBP
Two advanced VIP tickets to Quilliam’s summer ball, plus an earlybird opportunity to buy more tickets You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £1500 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
1 out of 10 of claimed

Name as Executive Producer

Currency Conversion $3,781 USD
£3,000 GBP
Your name will appear as an executive producer in the credits of all of the counter-narrative videos You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £1500 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
0 out of 10 of claimed

Dinner with Maajid Nawaz

Currency Conversion $6,302 USD
£5,000 GBP
VIP private dinner with Maajid Nawaz (time and date to be agreed) You will also receive all perks rewarded to contributions of £1500 and below
Estimated Shipping
April 2015
0 out of 3 of claimed
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