The Frontline Club

Alan Cowell in conversation with Charles Glass - The Paris Correspondent.mp3 by Frontline Club Charitable Trust

Alan Cowell in conversation with Charles Glass - The Paris Correspondent.mp3 by Frontline Club Charitable Trust

20th anniversary of the Bosnian war.mp3 by Frontline Club Charitable Trust

20th anniversary of the Bosnian war.mp3 by Frontline Club Charitable Trust

September 14, 2011

When reports began coming in of the bombing in Oslo on 22 July the general consensus among experts appeared to be that the attack had all the hallmarks of Islamic extremism.

It was only when news came through of a gunman on Utøya that it began to become clear that something quite different was taking place in Norway.

As we mark the ten year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, we will be examining the extent of our understanding of extremism.

Anders Behring Breivik has since been deemed a "mad man" by many commentators, who refuse to make a connection between his actions and the ideas of rightwing commentators cited in his manifesto.

For this event, in association with BBC Arabic, we will be investigating extremism in the 21st century and the process of radicalisation of groups and individuals.

What impact has the "war on terror" and other counter terrorism strategies had? Is there any truth in the suggestion that post 9/11 policy and rhetoric has fuelled not only Islamic extremism but the far right? And have we become so concerned with Islamic extremism that we’ve become blinkered to the threats from the far right?

We will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss whether in the past decade we have seen a rise of rightwing and Islamic extremism.

Chaired by Margaret Gilmore, Senior Research Fellow with RUSI ((Royal United Services Institute) analysing United Kingdom Public Policy on National Security and Resilience. Formerly BBC Senior Home Affairs Correspondent and co-author of The Terrorist Hunters, a definitive account of the terrorist threat to the UK in the past five years.

WIth:

Dr Christina Hellmich, lecturer in International Relations at the University of Reading. She is a specialist in Middle East politics working in Yemen, with a particular research interest in political Islam and global terrorism. Her recent book, Al-Qaeda: From global network to local franchise (Zed 2011), examines the key sources that inform the present understanding of al-Qaeda.

Ghaffar Hussain, director of Training and Consultancy at the Quilliam Foundation; organising and delivering radicalisation awareness training, providing strategic consultancy for a wide range of public and private organisations and co-ordinating outreach efforts to a wide variety of individuals and groups. He is author of A Brief History of Islamism.

Dr Matthew Feldman, senior lecturer in 20th century history at the University of Northampton, and an editor of Wiley-Blackwell’s online journal Compass: Political Religions. He directs Northampton’s Radicalism and New Media research network, and co-edits Continuum Books; new monograph series, Historicising Modernism. He has published various publications on fascist ideology, wartime propaganda and far-right extremism since World War One. He acts as an expert witness on cases against the contemporary radical right in Europe and the US. He is currently researching Ezra Pound’s links to Italian Fascism; the nature of extreme right-wing ‘lone wolf’ terrorism in the 21st century, and the postwar evolution of fascist ideology and practice since 1945.

Hugo MacPherson, formerly manager of the MPower Youth Project which entered communities and schools to counter radicalisation as part of the government’s Prevent programme. Recently he was part of a UK team sent to the Middle East to advise on effective youth engagement policy during the Arab Spring. An Arabic speaker and formerly a producer on Al Jazeera, he has made films on youth in Beirut and Damascus and on football fanatics in Cairo.

September 14, 2011

When reports began coming in of the bombing in Oslo on 22 July the general consensus among experts appeared to be that the attack had all the hallmarks of Islamic extremism.

It was only when news came through of a gunman on Utøya that it began to become clear that something quite different was taking place in Norway.

As we mark the ten year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, we will be examining the extent of our understanding of extremism.

Anders Behring Breivik has since been deemed a "mad man" by many commentators, who refuse to make a connection between his actions and the ideas of rightwing commentators cited in his manifesto.

For this event, in association with BBC Arabic, we will be investigating extremism in the 21st century and the process of radicalisation of groups and individuals.

What impact has the "war on terror" and other counter terrorism strategies had? Is there any truth in the suggestion that post 9/11 policy and rhetoric has fuelled not only Islamic extremism but the far right? And have we become so concerned with Islamic extremism that we’ve become blinkered to the threats from the far right?

We will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss whether in the past decade we have seen a rise of rightwing and Islamic extremism.

Chaired by Margaret Gilmore, Senior Research Fellow with RUSI ((Royal United Services Institute) analysing United Kingdom Public Policy on National Security and Resilience. Formerly BBC Senior Home Affairs Correspondent and co-author of The Terrorist Hunters, a definitive account of the terrorist threat to the UK in the past five years.

WIth:

Dr Christina Hellmich, lecturer in International Relations at the University of Reading. She is a specialist in Middle East politics working in Yemen, with a particular research interest in political Islam and global terrorism. Her recent book, Al-Qaeda: From global network to local franchise (Zed 2011), examines the key sources that inform the present understanding of al-Qaeda.

Ghaffar Hussain, director of Training and Consultancy at the Quilliam Foundation; organising and delivering radicalisation awareness training, providing strategic consultancy for a wide range of public and private organisations and co-ordinating outreach efforts to a wide variety of individuals and groups. He is author of A Brief History of Islamism.

Dr Matthew Feldman, senior lecturer in 20th century history at the University of Northampton, and an editor of Wiley-Blackwell’s online journal Compass: Political Religions. He directs Northampton’s Radicalism and New Media research network, and co-edits Continuum Books; new monograph series, Historicising Modernism. He has published various publications on fascist ideology, wartime propaganda and far-right extremism since World War One. He acts as an expert witness on cases against the contemporary radical right in Europe and the US. He is currently researching Ezra Pound’s links to Italian Fascism; the nature of extreme right-wing ‘lone wolf’ terrorism in the 21st century, and the postwar evolution of fascist ideology and practice since 1945.

Hugo MacPherson, formerly manager of the MPower Youth Project which entered communities and schools to counter radicalisation as part of the government’s Prevent programme. Recently he was part of a UK team sent to the Middle East to advise on effective youth engagement policy during the Arab Spring. An Arabic speaker and formerly a producer on Al Jazeera, he has made films on youth in Beirut and Damascus and on football fanatics in Cairo.

Thursday 14 February

This event is organised by Bahrain Pro-Democracy Group in UK and Sayed Alwadaei, political activist in UK.

It is the longest and most peaceful revolution, yet the least covered by the Western media. When the youth of the Gulf island of Bahrain decided to join the Arab Spring on 14 February 2011 they were responding to the call for change that had resonated in the corners of the Arab world. Two years later, they have remained faithful to their revolutions, slogans and human values.

Their daily protests have continued against all the odds, including the political and security support by some Western governments to the antiquated Alkhalifa regime. While the British media was supportive of Bahrain’s pro-democracy protests the UK Government was less enthusiastic towards change in the political structure of a monarchy found guilty of “systematic torture” by its own commission of investigation.

These issues will be debated at a special seminar to coincide with the second anniversary of Bahrain’s 14 February Revolution. A film report highlighting the British role in Bahrain will also be shown.

Chaired by Mark McDonald, a human rights barrister and the director and principle founder of the London Innocence Project. He has lectured extensively on US death penalty litigation and constitutional law. He is the founder of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

The Panel:

Dr Ala’a Shehabi, a Bahraini researcher and writer, and founding member of Bahrain Watch, an advocacy group campaigning for transparency and accountability in Bahrain. She is currently an ACSS research fellow and has a PhD in economics from Imperial College London.

Farida Ghulam, a member of the Board of National Democratic Action Society “WAAD”. She is active within the women’s movement and plays a leading role in the political affairs in Bahrain. She is also the wife of the liberal secular left opposition figure and president of WAAD, Ibrahim Sharif, whose 5 years prison sentence in a military court has been upheld twice on appeal.

John Lubbock, a research and advocacy officer for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights in London. He has a Masters in international politics and human rights from City University, London.

Mike Diboll, currently researching the cultural, generational and social transformation of the GCC region with a focus on higher education. He was professor of Comparative Literature at UAEU 2002-2007, University of Bahrain 2007-2009, Academic Head of CPD, Bahrain Teachers College 2009-2011.

Craig Murray, an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.

Thursday 14 February

This event is organised by Bahrain Pro-Democracy Group in UK and Sayed Alwadaei, political activist in UK.

It is the longest and most peaceful revolution, yet the least covered by the Western media. When the youth of the Gulf island of Bahrain decided to join the Arab Spring on 14 February 2011 they were responding to the call for change that had resonated in the corners of the Arab world. Two years later, they have remained faithful to their revolutions, slogans and human values.

Their daily protests have continued against all the odds, including the political and security support by some Western governments to the antiquated Alkhalifa regime. While the British media was supportive of Bahrain’s pro-democracy protests the UK Government was less enthusiastic towards change in the political structure of a monarchy found guilty of “systematic torture” by its own commission of investigation.

These issues will be debated at a special seminar to coincide with the second anniversary of Bahrain’s 14 February Revolution. A film report highlighting the British role in Bahrain will also be shown.

Chaired by Mark McDonald, a human rights barrister and the director and principle founder of the London Innocence Project. He has lectured extensively on US death penalty litigation and constitutional law. He is the founder of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

The Panel:

Dr Ala’a Shehabi, a Bahraini researcher and writer, and founding member of Bahrain Watch, an advocacy group campaigning for transparency and accountability in Bahrain. She is currently an ACSS research fellow and has a PhD in economics from Imperial College London.

Farida Ghulam, a member of the Board of National Democratic Action Society “WAAD”. She is active within the women’s movement and plays a leading role in the political affairs in Bahrain. She is also the wife of the liberal secular left opposition figure and president of WAAD, Ibrahim Sharif, whose 5 years prison sentence in a military court has been upheld twice on appeal.

John Lubbock, a research and advocacy officer for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights in London. He has a Masters in international politics and human rights from City University, London.

Mike Diboll, currently researching the cultural, generational and social transformation of the GCC region with a focus on higher education. He was professor of Comparative Literature at UAEU 2002-2007, University of Bahrain 2007-2009, Academic Head of CPD, Bahrain Teachers College 2009-2011.

Craig Murray, an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

This event is organised by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Followed by a drinks reception.

Egypt’s revolutionary uprising in 2011 raised important questions about the kind of journalism that would be viable in the country’s changing political dynamics.

Suddenly the output of bloggers, online radio and social media news operations, which had all formed part of the groundswell of action against dictatorship and repression, posed an explicit challenge to journalists in state-run and commercial media companies who were more directly subject to government controls.

In this launch event for her new book, Naomi Sakr looks at recent transformations in Egyptian journalism, exploring diverse approaches to converged media and the place of participatory cross-media networks in expanding and developing the country’s body of professional journalists.

Naomi Sakr will present her new book Transformations in Egyptian Journalism: Perspectives on News Work after the January 25 Revolution.

With:

Naomi Sakr, Professor of Media Policy at the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster, and Director of the CAMRI Arab Media Centre.

Dr Walter Armbrust, Hourani Fellow and University Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. He is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests focus on popular culture and mass media in the Middle East. He is the author of Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt, and editor of Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond. Dr Armbrust is currently working on a cultural history of the Egyptian cinema.

Mustafa Menshawy, formerly the Cairo-based BBC Arabic Service correspondent from the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution. He also reported from Libya before the fall of the Gaddafi regime. Menshawy won the Lorenzo Natali Prize for the best worldwide investigative journalism articles in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Kari Blackburn New Talent Award in 2008. He reported from areas far afield such as India and Thailand. He produced two documentaries from the BBC including a controversial one on the Financial Crisis in Dubai. Menshawy is now in London finishing his PhD on cultural claims of collective memory.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

This event is organised by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Followed by a drinks reception.

Egypt’s revolutionary uprising in 2011 raised important questions about the kind of journalism that would be viable in the country’s changing political dynamics.

Suddenly the output of bloggers, online radio and social media news operations, which had all formed part of the groundswell of action against dictatorship and repression, posed an explicit challenge to journalists in state-run and commercial media companies who were more directly subject to government controls.

In this launch event for her new book, Naomi Sakr looks at recent transformations in Egyptian journalism, exploring diverse approaches to converged media and the place of participatory cross-media networks in expanding and developing the country’s body of professional journalists.

Naomi Sakr will present her new book Transformations in Egyptian Journalism: Perspectives on News Work after the January 25 Revolution.

With:

Naomi Sakr, Professor of Media Policy at the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster, and Director of the CAMRI Arab Media Centre.

Dr Walter Armbrust, Hourani Fellow and University Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. He is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests focus on popular culture and mass media in the Middle East. He is the author of Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt, and editor of Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond. Dr Armbrust is currently working on a cultural history of the Egyptian cinema.

Mustafa Menshawy, formerly the Cairo-based BBC Arabic Service correspondent from the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution. He also reported from Libya before the fall of the Gaddafi regime. Menshawy won the Lorenzo Natali Prize for the best worldwide investigative journalism articles in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Kari Blackburn New Talent Award in 2008. He reported from areas far afield such as India and Thailand. He produced two documentaries from the BBC including a controversial one on the Financial Crisis in Dubai. Menshawy is now in London finishing his PhD on cultural claims of collective memory.