„I want to write a book to prevent other young people from going to Syria and joining the so-called Islamic State!“ These were the words of a young man in prison who was mentored by a social worker from the Jamal al-Khatib project team. Once part of the jihadi scene in Austria, he wanted to prevent other young people from repeating the mistakes he had made.
This initiative gave rise to the Interner Link: web video project "Jamal al-Khatib - My Path!“ in 2017. Other formers, as well as young people who had shown resilience to jihadist narratives during the "high phase" of the so-called Islamic State joined the team. Their experiences form the basis for the contents of the project. The initial project team of social workers and Islamic scholars was joined by experts from fields such as political science, sociology, psychology, psychotherapy, educational science, filmmaking, digital content management and more.
Jamal al-Khatib - My Path! was created, a participatory online P/CVE project which addresses ideologies of political inequality based on authentic alternative narratives. Between 2019 and 2022, the second, third and fourth seasons of Jamal al-Khatib - My Path! were launched on behalf of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb).
In the course of the project, different online formats were produced, such as longer autobiographical videos as well as animations and interview formats. The contents question the propaganda of jihadist-Islamist movements and counter them with alternative narratives. At the same time, a low-threshold youth social work program was created offline, not least to do justice to the methodological approach of empowering youths and young adults to have their own say and to take part in a discourse that is relevant to them.
The project has three main target groups:
Offline target group: The project sees itself as a multi-professional association in which online videos and other content are produced based on texts that are developed together with young adults, some of them formers from the jihadi scene. The content is disseminated via social media online campaigns, kicking off the start of digital youth and social work.
Online target groups: The Jamal al-Khatib - My Path! online phase is intended to reach adolescents and young adults who are vulnerable to jihadist online propaganda for various reasons; particularly those that may come across extremist content(s), online channels and networks via search queries on topics related to their everyday lives. In addition, the aim is to reach young people who already sympathise with jihadist groups and narratives and dwell in social media filter bubbles specific to the islamist-jihadist scene.
Furthermore, the content of the project is intended to support practitioners in addressing the issues raised in different pedagogical settings. This includes digital youth and social workers who can use the content in the course of online P/CVE.
In 2020, the project received the BRaVE Award by a consortium of experts from universities and civil society organisations from across Europe, whose aim was to explore how and why violent extremism develops and what can be done to best respond to it. The award highlighted the best projects seeking to counter polarisation and violent extremism through resilience-building. The award money has now been used to translate and re-record four of the project’s most important videos into English. The videos are Takfir, Shirk & Democracy, Resistance & BESA, and Terror: all autobiographical short films with documentary elements that are weighted differently depending on the video. Additionally, educational material was produced, so that practitioners can use the videos in different educational settings.
Find more information in this Interner Link: file on „Theoretical and pedagogical handout for the participatory online P/CVE project in the field of extremism prevention“.