Reprinted from the Spring 2020 issue of Philanthropy magazine (PhilMag.org)

When extremists leave prison, who helps them find a new life?

By Ashley May

He was later convicted of conspiring with Colleen LaRose (aka “ Jane”) into and then his path back to murder a Swedish artist. Agents had out, he admits “I was resistant to change.

Anti-Radical previously visited Khalid to warn him The world of religious extremism was the about his activities on the dark web— only world that I had ever known.” It was Mohammed Hassan Khalid was 15 years translating and editing jihadist videos. But a private nonprofit called Quilliam that old when he was arrested and charged with Khalid ignored the cautions and eventually helped him chart a new life course. terrorism. At the time he lived in Howard found himself wearing a jumpsuit. “Since I first discovered Quilliam County, Maryland, with his family. He Today, Khalid reflects that “I needed from behind bars, I have wholeheartedly had been accepted to Johns Hopkins the hard reality of prison to come to terms embraced the organization’s unique University, and even offered a scholarship. with my past.” He also needed charitable approach in dealing with But in the summer of 2011, federal agents help that allowed him to return to society of all forms,” he writes. “It is my hope arrived at Khalid’s home and took him “as a stronger and better person.” In a that lessons from my past can be used away to a juvenile correctional facility. narrative he wrote describing his descent to help mitigate the disastrous effects of

38 PHILANTHROPY and came to the conclusion that was the path to safety. He built up Hizb sometimes forgets is that these individuals ut-Tahrir at university in , and then aren’t in prison forever—eventually they in Pakistan. He moved to Egypt with his return to their communities to begin a new wife and child with plans to build a cell. life, or resume their old one. John Walker It was not long before the Egyptian Lindh, who was arrested for joining the police arrested Nawaz and imprisoned Taliban two months after 9/11, received a him in Mazrah Tora, the country’s 20-year sentence. He was released for good notorious prison for jihadists and political behavior in May 2019 after 17 years, and is opponents. As a British citizen, Nawaz’s now living in Northern Virginia. The New incarceration was international news and York Times reported last spring that “the legally complex. After five years, Amnesty government has characterized Mr. Lindh International and the British government in recent years as holding on to extremist were able to secure his release. His return views.” His release has therefore “raised to England brought uncomfortable questions about how he can be safely questions: did Nawaz’s time in prison make reintegrated into society without some him more extreme, or less? Was he going kind of formal government program for to lead the U.K. branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir? rehabilitating former jihadists.” And if so, where would he take the group? These questions—how to What Nawaz did next was a surprise. “deradicalize” extremists both in prison He publicly resigned from Hizb ut-Tahrir and out, how to equip communities for after 12 years of Islamism. Gone was his their release, how to prevent recidivism radical fervor—to the point where he was and “relapse” into unhealthy networks and willing to give up everything in order to possible violence—have not been answered take a different path. either by academic researchers or by “When I left H.T., I also left my government officials in any authoritative friends behind. My life had been so way. And while there are hundreds of entwined with the organization that organizations working to reintegrate my entire social circle had gone with former gang members into society, or equip it. I didn’t have a job or any money.” other types of ex-offenders for meaningful This all-encompassing decision even jobs, groups engaging extremists are few involved leaving his wife, who remained and far between. a member of the group. Nawaz ended up Just a handful of small nonprofits are living in his car. lighting a path forward. One of Nawaz’s friends could relate to his predicament. , who had A new course also left extremism behind, was working is a “former.” At one time on a Ph.D. and writing his first book, he was an Islamist. He advocated for The Islamist: Why I Became an Islamic a that would unite Muslims Fundamentalist, What I Saw Inside, and around the world into one aggressive, Why I Left. Husain started meeting with extremism, and ultimately bring relief to politicized entity. Nawaz in his car to talk about and countless victims.” Nawaz grew up in Britain in a the West, individual liberty, and human Pakistani immigrant family, surrounded rights. They started to dream about using Coming home by gangs, bullying, racism, and violence. the recruitment and organization skills Since 2013, there have been more than 20 At the age of 17 he joined an Islamist they honed in Islamism for the sake of attacks on U.S. soil connected to various organization called Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party Western liberalism. extremist ideologies. More than 250 of Liberation). At the time it seemed What finally emerged in 2007 was people have been charged with domestic like protection, he explains in his book what Husein and Nawaz would call terrorism—the majority of whom are Radical. “When you’re that age, already the “world’s first counter-extremism U.S. citizens or permanent residents. angry and disenfranchised, you’re very organization”—a think tank named after Approximately 250 people have left the susceptible to absolutes.” He saw graphic William Quilliam, the Englishman who U.S. to join ISIS. videos of Muslims slaughtered in Bosnia opened Britain’s first mosque. A Kuwati Like other felons, convicted terrorists istockphoto.com / baona istockphoto.com serve time in lockups. What the public Ashley May is managing editor of Philanthropy.

SPRING 2020 39 a rehabilitation. Tribal chiefs in Africa are asking about the possibility of a workshop foundation gave them seed money, they on violent extremism for their community. hired two other former Islamists, and were A news outlet needs a source to comment off to the races. Foundation is in the process of sunsetting on current events. A book publisher needs this year). Anderson says that Quilliam’s line edits. An American counterpart research on radicalization—and especially Violent extremism can be countered, For ten years, Quilliam’s activities were how to interrupt it—is widely cited and Fraser-Rahim asserts, but it requires mostly limited to the British Isles, though used by other programs. myriad kinds of work. Research on its arguments had reverberations in Using the experiences of former groups, and on psychological processes. America and elsewhere. Nawaz’s personal Islamists to battle extremism is at the Media messaging. Lots of counseling on story and public-speaking skills catapulted center of Quilliam’s growing efforts in the the ground. him into the British media discourse. The U.S. Starting in 2018, the organization The road to transformation is a little first time he travelled to the U.S. (under created a North American offspring led by like beating an addiction. Stepping away supervision) was to testify before Congress. Muhammad Fraser-Rahim. Fraser-Rahim from extremism is a “messy process.” It’s Nawaz started to engage in public isn’t a former Islamist. He is a black not simple. It is not always linear. But it’s debates over Islam. He had not left the Muslim from Charleston, South Carolina, possible. And it has to be done. Muslim religion; just Islamist extremism, who worked as a counterterrorism analyst distinguishing him from activists who for U.S. intelligence services, including Filling a niche had left the faith, like Ayaan Hirsi writing Daily Briefs for the U.S. President. Quilliam’s U.S. effort is small. Very small. Ali. Quilliam commissioned imams His Ph.D. examined African-American Fraser-Rahim has two full-time employees to theologically probe the relationship Islam, and its connection to the broader and five consultants on his team and between Islam and liberalism, whilst Islamic world. manages a $1.5 million budget. “We keep engaging analysts to track the Islamist Fraser-Rahim’s aims for Quilliam in things lean,” he says. “Obviously we could landscape in real time. All the while, the the U.S. are very practical. Interrupt the use some assistance.” group of “formers” who joined its network radicalization process. Reintegrate past Part of Quilliam’s austerity has to do continued to grow. offenders into healthy community life. with fallout in the public eye. In 2016, Lorenzo Vidino, who runs the Project Challenge the assumption that nothing the Southern Poverty Law Center put on Extremism at George Washington can be done other than security. “Since Quilliam on one of its notorious “hate University says that Quilliam was one my time in government I’ve dedicated my lists.” This precipitated a massive fall of his models when he set up his study life to engaging with individuals on their in donations. Quilliam took the SPLC center in 2015. The nuanced analysis journey out of extremism.” Mohammed to court in Britain, resulting in a $3.4 and former-radical leadership of Nawaz’s Khalid, whose story opened this article, is million settlement. group, Vidino says, has had a “terrific one of Fraser-Rahim’s successes. But the impact from SPLC’s slander impact” on the British public conversation, Right now Fraser-Rahim has about lingers. Google “Quilliam” and out-of- challenging assumptions of both the a dozen “cases” he meets with frequently date or spurious stories recycling the Left and the Right on this topic. The to talk about their beliefs and daily lives. attack will pop up. On the “About” trailblazing organization has acquired “lots Some individuals he meets with in prison. section of its website, Quilliam has of enemies” in the process, he notes, but Some have been released. He uses a a whole section titled “Setting the that “comes with the territory.” methodical deradicalization process that Record Straight,” responding to false Truman Anderson of the Stuart can be effective with many people. allegations that the group smears Family Foundation encountered Nawaz Fraser-Rahim’s phone buzzes often. A ordinary Muslim organizations, receives in the early years of Quilliam’s formation. justice official is preparing for the release heavy government funding, or gives Impressed, Anderson introduced his board of an inmate in a rural area, and wants him respectability to extremists. This is likely to Nawaz, leading to a series of grants to keep an eye out. A first-person narrative to drag on the charity’s fundraising for totaling about a million and a half dollars written by a former extremist is being some time to come. from 2009 to 2015 (the Stuart Family approved by Homeland Security as part of Other groups that follow and counter extremism in the U.S. are also comparatively small. Vidino’s project at George Washington University has 11 There are a lot of people locked up staff members and what he calls the “coffee budget” of one of the larger think tanks. who are about to leave prison. Yet his organization has become a primary domestic-extremism researcher for the RadicalThey are going to be a problem. New York Times, and works steadily on the 40 PHILANTHROPY the domain of government.” Yet many newspaper’s “ISIS Files” project. “Not a lot government officials are hungry for of people are doing what we do,” Vidino help from private groups who might explains. “Middle East experts” are a dime Difficult and dire provide new angles, new competencies, a dozen, but the number of scholars expert “How do you know it’s going to work?” new energy. GenNext got involved in in extremism in the U.S. is tiny, and many That is a question Nick Rasmussen hears national-security philanthropy after of them are at independent organizations a lot, often from Members of Congress. law-enforcement officials told them, in supported by philanthropy. Like Munter, Rasmussen spent most of Davidson’s summation, that today’s terror Cameron Munter was U.S. his working life in government, most problem “will not be solved unless the Ambassador to Pakistan from 2010 to recently as director of the National private sector is playing a role, just because 2012, Ambassador to Serbia before then, Counterterrorism Center. When he left of the nature of the threat.” and has held many other senior diplomatic the public sector and went to work at the After ten years as a funder, Davidson posts in and around Muslim countries. He McCain Institute in 2017, he was inspired is even more convinced. “Government first learned about Nawaz while he was by a vision to address “gaps” in national is not wired to fight recruitment into still ambassador in Pakistan, and since his security that government can’t fill. As radical organizations. It doesn’t have the retirement from government he has been part of that, he now leads a small team at credibility, it doesn’t have the skills, that’s involved with Quilliam in numerous ways, McCain zeroed in on preventing extremist not government’s domain.” especially when he took over the reins of violence in the United States. News headlines illustrate the the East-West Institute. Working in this area requires a seriousness of this challenge. In November Quilliam “is doing something a lot of “tolerance for messiness,” Rasmussen 2019, a 28-year-old Briton released people talk about but few know how to do, warns. It’s very difficult to measure earlier in the year from imprisonment for which is to see the counterterrorist problem the impact of prevention programs, for terror activity started knifing shoppers, from the point of view of people living instance. “When you stop something killing two before police shot him dead. through it,” he tells me. “They really do from happening, how do you document a Perversely, he was in London to attend a seem to get results.” Today, says Munter, success?” he asks. conference on deradicalization of Islamists, “diplomacy is not just diplomats.” Much Michael Davidson is very familiar after having convinced the authorities international education is done by private with that problem. He leads GenNext, a who paroled him that he had recanted universities. International corporations play community of young philanthropists who his extremist views. Another very similar a role in defining attitudes and culture. aspire to be “citizen leaders.” He’s observed attack was carried out in London this Nonprofits are important. that many donors are nervous about February by an Islamist just out of prison. “The government is necessary, but straying from well-beaten paths. “You “Officials,” reported the Wall Street Journal, not sufficient,” he says. For diplomatic hear a lot of ‘I want proven models I can “have acknowledged the growing security successes, multiple entities within a society scale up.’ Or ‘I want to measure the impact challenge stretched counterterrorism need to work toward common goals. “The immediately.’ That means a lot of problems services face from people convicted government has this habit of saying, ‘We will never get taken on.” A branch of of terror offenses returning into the should do it. The rest of you get out of the philanthropy like national security can be community after serving their sentences, way.’ But a wise government person, a wise stultified in this way. “If you help Maajid a parallel test to one posed by jihadists ambassador, will realize, ‘These guys have Nawaz you’re not going to be able to say returning from Middle East war zones.” talents that the U.S. government doesn’t with any finality that you stopped X “There are a lot of people locked up have. These guys have access. These guys terrorist attacks. You can’t think of it that on terrorism charges, in the U.S. and in have experience.’” way,” he warns. Europe, who are about to leave prison,” In the difficult, delicate work of Truman Anderson reports that Anderson tells me. “They are going to “preventing violent extremism, figuring even after his board decided to focus on be a problem. Local governments are out a way to get young people not to join extremism, it took two years to place unschooled in how to contend with them.” these jihadi groups, it’s wise for the U.S. its first grant. There was a period of “The country needs to know that government to recognize, ‘You can achieve vetting, of exploring the field, of finding good things can be done in this area, things we can’t.’” the pitfalls. With few private funders out with high leverage, if public-spirited Charities like Quilliam have a unique there to learn from, they had to do their people will put money into the effort,” role, Munter notes. Their independence own exploring. Michael Davidson argues. He implores gives them credibility—especially within Davidson suggests potential funders his fellow donors not to overlook faith and immigrant communities—that of anti-extremism education and other the potential of national-security government programs don’t have. And to national-security causes “abdicate philanthropy. I check the light on my P operate independently, they need donors. responsibility because they think it’s tape recorder, and keep taking notes.

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