Jamal al-Khatib

The CSO

The CSO behind the project is ‘turn – Association for the prevention of violence and extremism’, a network of youth workers, filmmakers, scholars of Islamic studies, psychologists, psychotherapists, political scientists, sociologists, education scientists, an Islamic chaplain and young people (individuals who have left the jihadist subculture, as well as young Muslims who want to take a position against jihadism).

The organisation was founded in 2017 in order to carry out online streetwork projects based on authentic alternative narratives to extremist online propaganda. We create online content that questions right-wing extremist and Islamist-extremist online propaganda, as well as patriarchal structures.

Type of Organisation: NGO

The main aim of the project is to deliver authentic alternative narratives to jihadist and Islamist-extremist online propaganda by applying online streetwork and narrative-biography methods.

Jamal al-Khatib is inspired by a young prisoner who managed to break away from the jihadist subculture in Austria. He told his youth worker that he wished to write a book about his experiences to help prevent other young people from making the same mistakes.

From this starting point, the project brought together a number of like-minded professionals: youth workers, experts in Islamic studies, filmmakers, digital content managers, psychologists, psychotherapists, political scientists and sociologists, as well as (and most importantly) young people (some of them formers) who wanted to take a stand against violent jihadist fanaticism.

The character of Jamal al-Khatib was developed as a means of integrating the different biographical examples of young people into a single narrative. Instead of writing a book, it was decided to make short films, as this approach would counter extremist propaganda on its own home ground — the internet.

Through this narrative biographical approach, the participating youngsters and young adults reflect on their lives. Thus, the results are texts based on personal experiences and thoughts. The high level of authenticity could never have been achieved without the contribution of the mentioned youngsters. Additionally, the deradicalisation process of these youngsters is supported sustainably.

The team, together with the youths, reflect on the biographical texts. In cooperation with filmmakers, the texts are transformed into film scripts that finally serve as a basis for short films. Together with accompanying content such as GIFs and Instagram stories, they are released on different social media platforms. Online, “Team Jamal” (experts, as well as youngsters) discuss the contents of the videos with the target groups. This approach is called onlinestreetwork.

Between 2019 and 2022, the second, third and fourth season of Jamal al-Khatib - My Path! were launched on behalf of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb).

• Jamal al Khatib campaign videos
• Pedagogical material Season 1 and 2 as well as on the topics “honour” and Srebrenica
• English-speaking pedagogical material for the videos „Takfir“, „Shirk&Democracy“, Resistance&BESA“ and „Terror“
• Evaluation Report of Season 2, as well as fact sheets on the COVID 19 campaign and the Uighurs campaign
• Reports on the campaigns Ramadan2020, Srebrenica2020, Chechnya, and Terror
• English Article on the project in the Edinburgh University Press book “Jihadi Audiovisuality and its Entanglements”
• Project Report on Season 1
• Book Chapter on online streetwork
• Article on the project’s response to the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan
• Journal article on the narrative foundations of the project
• VOX-Pol Blog Post on the English videos and the accompanying material
• Jamal al-Khatib Instagram Account
• Jamal al-khatib Facebook Account

Contact person: Felix Lippe
f [dot] n [dot] lippegmail [dot] com (Email) | Website | Web video