By Salma Javid Khan on December 8, 2015 ( Leave a comment )

“Fighting Extremism & Islamophobia to Promote Community Cohesion”: Gateshead Muslim Society hosts inaugural seminar of Anti-Radicalisation Mentoring and Awareness Network [AMAN]

‘Fighting Extremism & Islamophobia to Promote Community Cohesion’: Gateshead Muslim Society hosts the inaugural seminar of Anti-Radicalisation Mentoring and Awareness Network [AMAN]

Gateshead Muslim Society, a registered charity, working to meet the diverse educational, religious, health and training needs of the Muslim and BME communities in Gateshead since late 1990s hosted the inaugural workshop of Anti-Radicalisation Mentoring and Awareness Network [AMAN] on 03 Dec 2015. Among others, the workshop was attended by the Mayer of Gateshead, executive staff of Gateshead Civic Centre, senior members of Gateshead Police, interfaith community leaders, BME activists and representatives of local charities working in the twin cities of Newcastle and Gateshead.

In her keynote address, Mrs. Nabeela Ali, Chairperson AMAN highlighted the motivation behind AMAN project and explained its key objectives. She emphasized that countering extremism is a duty upon all peace-loving humans but it is a religious obligation upon Muslims to come forward and spread the real message of Islam where saving a single life is valued to the extent of saving the entire humanity.

She pointed out that extremist propaganda is misleading and radicalising Muslim youth but the spread of distorted Islamic teachings and insensitive media coverage of terrorist activities has been raising Islamophobia to the extent that existence of multicultural communities and inter-faith harmony in the United Kingdom has become endangered. AMAN Project provides a unique platform to facilitate positive dialogue between schools, parents, young individuals, faith leaders and government agencies to counter both the extremist ideologies and Islamophobia for building cohesive communities around fundamental human ethos common in the British values and Islamic teachings, she added.

Welcoming AMAN project in Gateshead, Inspector Lee Gosling of local policing team for Central Gateshead stated that projects like AMAN are need of the time. He praising Islam as the religion of peace and offered full support to AMAN project in countering the menace of terrorism and radicalisation.

Vena Soni, Manger Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service at Gateshead Civic Centre, shared the highlights of the work already being done in the schools to counter racism, radicalisation and promote tolerance and cohesion. She welcomed the expansion of AMAN project in Gateshead schools and expressed her desire for collaborative in the context of wider safeguarding and Prevent duty effective since July this year.

Michael Hart representing Gateshead Visible Ethnic Minorities Support Group welcomed AMAN team in Gateshead and assured them of positive outcomes due to presence of friendship, trust, openness, tolerance and cultural awareness among the communities that has been nurtured by various community groups and charities over the last three decades.

Alex Geddes, Mayor of Gateshead, referred to his involvement with the AMAN project since its beginning in Newcastle. He praised AMAN interventions as the most valuable work taking positive action against extremism.

The highlight of the workshop were the focus group discussion where workshop participants exchanged their views about the reasons for extremism and islamophobia as well as strategies and interventions to tackle them.

Dr. Ali Mehmood presented the outcomes of AMAN’s research and shared AMAN’s outreach and progress to date. AMAN has successfully established its counter-extremist presence both online and offline reaching thousands of readers, listeners and viewers at local, regional and global levels through on-line channels [Facebook and AMAN website], Local Radio Stations [Spice FM and Metro], the most popular tabloid ‘Evening Chronicle’, the largest weekly bilingual newspaper ‘Nawa-i-Jang, and ITV Tyne Tees.

In the end, Mr. Younis Malik, vice chairman Gateshead Muslim Society, thanked all the workshop participants for their time and valuable contributions. ‘Fighting extremism is the need of our time and by fostering partnership with AMAN, we hope to achieve our common goal of creating socially cohesive integrated communities’ he concluded.

Photographs from the event