Parents For Peace

The Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence ( CPRLV ) in Montreal published a new radicalization prevention guide titled ‘ Strengthening Our Resilience to Agents of Radicalization and Their Rhetoric .’ According to this guide, an agent of radicalization is: “… a person who uses extremist rhetoric to attract individuals with different degrees of vulnerability and who may exhibit feelings of victimization or rejection, identity malaise, or certain personal or social vulnerabilities.” In response to the questions such individuals may have about their place in society, agents of radicalization offer a simplistic, black-and-white worldview that portrays certain beliefs as irreconcilable and diametrically opposed to one another. As a result, the agents rhetoric encourages listeners to progressively adopt an extremist logic incompatible with the principles of social togetherness, generating the sorts of rifts that lay the groundwork for the process of radicaliza...

What Can Be Done To Address Online Radicalization Peter Neumann of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence ( ICSR) recently talked about the myths and realities of online radicalization and what can be done to address it. In the video, Neumann focuses on jihadist radicalization because that is his area of expertise, but also says: A lot of the insights that I’m going to convey to you, you can easily transfer to other kinds of radicalization. So if you’re particularly interested in, for example, how people become far-right extremists then a lot of what’s in this presentation, even though it doesn’t deal directly with far-right extremism, is also relevant to you.   Neumann focuses on 5 important points for understanding and addressing online radicalization . The internet doesn’t (singlehandedly) cause people to become extremists or terrorist. However, the internet has changed how people radicalize . What extremists do online isn’t ...

On April 28th, Parents for Peace collaborated with the Inkblot Project from Boston University for an event featuring former white supremacist Arno Michaelis and former jihadi-sympathizer turned undercover operative Mubin Shaikh . A main focus of the discussion was explorng commonalities in the radicalization process across extremist movements. In introducing the speakers, Parents for Peace program coordinator David Phillippi made the following remarks: The word extremism brings up some very natural negative reactions: confusion, fear, anger, disgust. After each act of violence here at home, or when we hear about people leaving behind material comforts to travel overseas to a warzone, we ask How? How could anyone do that? Why? Why would anyone believe those things? We know that this issue is complicated, but we believe that there are answers to these questions. When we listen to the families whose loved ones took that path, when we listen to people who lived that life, and then lef...

The article, ‘ For Families of Radicalizing U.S. Youth, a Helpline ‘ touches on the story of Parents for Peace founder Melvin Bledsoe and why he was motivated to find a way to assist others struggling to reach loved ones being drawn into extremism. His own family’s experience, as they watched Carlos slip away from them, was one of isolation. He tells the reporter: “I didn’t have any help. I didn’t have no one to turn to, no one to lean on but my other family members. Out of the pain of this experience grew the desire to make a difference: Bledsoe, hoping to give parents in similar situations and fearful of calling the police more options than he had, founded the nonprofit Parents for Peace and launched what it bills as the first citizen-run U.S. telephone help line to counter the ideologies that lead to violent extremism . Carole Mansfield , whose granddaughter Nicole died in Syria in 2013, has also found solace in trying to serve others: “I’m battling cancer and I just hope and...

What Can Be Done To Address Online Radicalization Peter Neumann of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence ( ICSR) recently talked about the myths and realities of online radicalization and what can be done to address it. In the video, Neumann focuses on jihadist radicalization because that is his area of expertise, but also says: A lot of the insights that I’m going to convey to you, you can easily transfer to other kinds of radicalization. So if you’re particularly interested in, for example, how people become far-right extremists then a lot of what’s in this presentation, even though it doesn’t deal directly with far-right extremism, is also relevant to you.   Neumann focuses on 5 important points for understanding and addressing online radicalization . The internet doesn’t (singlehandedly) cause people to become extremists or terrorist. However, the internet has changed how people radicalize . What extremists do online isn’t ...

On April 28th, Parents for Peace collaborated with the Inkblot Project from Boston University for an event featuring former white supremacist Arno Michaelis and former jihadi-sympathizer turned undercover operative Mubin Shaikh . A main focus of the discussion was explorng commonalities in the radicalization process across extremist movements. In introducing the speakers, Parents for Peace program coordinator David Phillippi made the following remarks: The word extremism brings up some very natural negative reactions: confusion, fear, anger, disgust. After each act of violence here at home, or when we hear about people leaving behind material comforts to travel overseas to a warzone, we ask How? How could anyone do that? Why? Why would anyone believe those things? We know that this issue is complicated, but we believe that there are answers to these questions. When we listen to the families whose loved ones took that path, when we listen to people who lived that life, and then lef...