BRAVE on the continent
Responding To Extremists’ Narratives Conference Held in Minna, Niger State from 24th July 2017 to 28th July 2017
The Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) invited Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism (BRAVE) and Center for Sustainable Conflict Resolution (CSCR), to a conference in Minna, Nigeria to review the draft documents on counter narratives of Boko Haram. BRAVE was represented by Sh. Ramadhan Aula, who is also the director, CSCR, Sh. Ibrahim Lethome, Chairman, BRAVE Reference Committee, and Dr. Othman Mujahid, BRAVE Senior Consultant. The conference was held for five days; from 24th July to 28th July 2017. Two drafts were tabled; Moderation in Dialogue: An Alternative Narrative from Borno by scholars from Maiduguri and A Critical Discourse of BH’s Ideology: Narratives and References by Cordoba Foundation.
Major Themes discussed
The main themes discussed in the conference were:
- “Shari’ah Intelligence” – Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence and Islamic Legal Theory (Usul al-Fiqh) and the methods of ijtihad that lead to the construction of Fatwa.
- Islamic legal philosophy and maxims (al-Qawa’id al-Fiqhiyyah) that fatwas are based on and approaches in handling diversity among scholars. participants follow proceedings during the conference
- The use of seerah (Prophet Muhammad’s biography) in countering the narratives of violent extremists.
- Overview and review of The Challenge of Extremism to Peace-Building and Interfaith Relations among Muslims (al-Wala wa al-Bara’ wa al-Birr wa al-Qist) draft.
- Overview and review of A Critical Discourse of BH’s Ideology
- The use of media in countering violent extremism.
Regional Youth Forum – Addis Ethopia/Sagana Kenya
The 2017 Regional Youth Forum was organized by Arigatou International—Nairobi from 14th to 24th November 2017 in Sagana, Kenya. The Theme Youth Forum was ‘Youth in Action: Building Positive Inter and Intra-group Relations’. Youth leaders were invited from Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda and Tanzania.
The objective of the forum was to realize peaceful coexistence among communities and social groups in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa region and to catalyze youth from various faith communities to take leadership action towards building peace – characterized by harmonious, just and resilient communities, and sustainable development.
The forum consisted of four complimentary parts:
- Transformative Leadership Training, facilitated in collaboration with the Africa Center for Transformative and Inclusive Leadership (ACTIL)
- Workshop Sessions with a focus on specific Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE)
- High-level roundtable and dialogue session with various stakeholders
- Youth-led sessions to share experiences, knowledge, tools and skills
CSCR experts were invited to facilitate/co-facilitate sessions on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation in Peacebuilding and Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE),
Faith-Based Narratives to P/CVE; Overview of faith-based narratives on violence and their counter narratives and early warning and early responses to P/CVE.
IGAD Workshop Djibouti
CSCR was invited to a workshop on amplifying the voices of Young African Leaders in the fight against radicalization and violent extremism. The workshop was organized by IGAD Center of Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (ICEPCVE) from 30th October to 2nd November 2017 at the Chamber of Commerce in Djibouti.
The IGAD Center of Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (ICEPCVE) engaged the YALI alumnae as partners for peace by finding new ways to amplify their voices and partner with local governments, CSOs, and Community Leaders.
CSCR experts facilitated several sessions during the workshop. The sessions included; Development of counter messaging and the use of the media, Detecting and Forecasting Violent Extremism Acts; How to predict, recognize and counter extremist tendencies and Pathways out of Violent -Extremism; Individual Disengagement and Collective Disengagement.
The experts also guided the audience during group work on development of messengers to be used on both mainstream and social media and moderated other sessions during the training.
Participants were invited from the IGAD region five from Tanzania, four from Kenya, four from Uganda, eight from Somalia, one from Ethiopia, and six from Djibouti.
