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The Manitoba professor developing a tool kit to help identify early stages of extremism

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A professor at the University of Winnipeg is developing a tool kit to help teachers identify the early signs of extremism in their students.

Kawser Ahmed, an adjunct professor in the political science department at U of W, said the idea for the project came from his post-doctoral research on pathological intervention in countering radicalization.

During his research, he spoke with teachers and realized they face “enormous” challenges.

“I’m talking about pre-COVID times. At that time the extremism and radicalization to violence, which was prevalent in Manitoba schools, was in terms of the ‘it’s okay to be white’ movement, anti-Semitism, quite a bit of anti-Indigenous hatred in the schools,” Ahmed said in an interview on Thursday.

From there, Ahmed started to think about how teachers can actually intervene when it comes to extremism in the classroom, especially because they are not fully equipped with the knowledge of the language, signs, and symbols of extremism and extreme groups.

“I thought why don’t we equip our teachers with all this knowledge so that they can handle extremism in their classrooms directly?”

Ahmed noted that the project has a two-year timeline with several stages, including working with educators to develop the content of the tool kit, and bringing in stakeholders, including parents, school administrators and law enforcement agencies.

He said during the development process, they are going to run about 13 to 16 workshops throughout various school divisions around Manitoba.

“This is how we are going to educate them and prepare them,” Ahmed said.

He said the tool kit will be made available to educators online, adding an app that can be used as a reference will also be developed.

Ahmed said he has some broad ideas for what he wants in the tool kit, which includes social media-related content so that educators are aware of the language, signs and symbols being used by extreme groups.

WHY IS THIS NECESSARY?

Ahmed said we are living in a complicated age, because the internet and social media make it difficult for people to know the truth.

“This is one of the problems that is in today’s world, we don’t know what is the truth,” he said.

“This is why our tool kit is based on real evidence and knowledge and developed by the educators.”

Ahmed added that he also wants to give the power back to educators.

He explained that young people tend to seek out information through the internet, rather than consulting their teachers about social issues. Ahmed is hoping the tool kit will help change this.

“One of the main objectives of this project is to bring back the legitimacy, the power of educators back to them,” he said.

“Nowadays, this power is not with them. It’s with Google. It’s with Reddit. It’s with 4Chan.”

Ahmed said Canadians, and particularly Manitobans, may not think extremism is an issue, but that is wrong.

“One of the reasons the neo-Nazi group The Base chose Manitoba is exactly this—nobody cares about the vulnerability of Manitoba, because it’s the hinterland. Nobody is interested in having a look into Manitoba’s situation,” he said.

He said it’s important for people to have an awareness of what is going on in society. 

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