Radical Play aims to engage communities
TSN senior correspondent Rick Westhead, and senior field producer Josh Shiamen investigate stories of deradicalization using sports programs in Germany and Ireland. Germany has accepted more than one million refugees since the beginning of 2015, many of whom are young, unaccompanied Muslim men. Westhead and Shiamen examine these stories, using a personal approach and speak directly to those most involved.
Part one of the piece focuses on Box Out, a boxing gym in Hamburg, Germany run by Christian Goerisch. Goerisch is an amateur boxer who has lived his entire life in Hamburg. In 2008, he started a program teaching boxing in schools in the city’s blue-collar neighbourhoods, with the hope of engaging local youth. A year ago, Christian agreed to a request from a city administrator to work with orphan refugees from North Africa. “I was sure that it wasn’t enough only to work on schools,” says Goerisch. “I had to make a boxing gym in central Hamburg where youth could come from all parts of the city after they have finished their school day.”
Part two of this investigation takes a different approach, examining how Muslim women around the world have been forced to quit playing soccer when FIFA’s ban on the hijab conflicted with their religious conviction. This ban has since been lifted, paving the way for a new team in Dublin named Diverse City FC, which was formed by a group of young Muslim women. The team is helping to dispel stereotypes about Muslims, establish new friendships, and build confidence in young Muslim women who have pledged to play a role in fighting back against extremism.
Community integration programs such as those investigated by Westhead have been in practice in Europe for some time. “In local countries across Europe, local sports organizations are harnessing the power of sport to prevent isolated Muslim youths from being recruited by violent extremist groups,” says Westhead. The United Kingdom, for example, has adopted a bottom-up approach, in which the government funds local projects proposed by Muslim communities to counter extremism. These initiatives range from sports clubs to multimedia educational projects. The Austrian government has been funding the National Action Plan for Integration (NAP) since 2009, focusing on sports and recreation, intercultural dialogue, health and social issues, and the regional dimensions of radicalization. Germany’s attempts at the prevention of extremism in sports has a similar focus, stating that the organisation of cultural and sporting events aids in the dissemination of anti-racist ideas, through the presentation of and interaction with different nationalities and cultures. Sweden has been using sports associations and programs to counter neo-Nazi criminality and to establish networks against racism and anti-semitism.
The primary aim of these initiatives is to create a strong sense of community within and among demographics of the country in question. Despite the rhetoric often parroted in news headlines, only a very small fraction of Muslims become radicalized—just as only a very small fraction of Christians, Hindus, Communists, Anarchists, or any other group become radicalized. However, radicalization is often the result of isolation and exclusion from political dialogue, from social interaction, and from feeling unable to instigate change within traditional frameworks. Because of the massive migration and displacement of Muslims due to conflict, such feelings of isolation and exclusion are all the more likely. Aside from radicalization, other consequences of this displacement are depression and decline of mental health, loss of culture, reduction in socio-economic status, and higher susceptibility to domestic abuse, just to name a few. Radicalization gets the most print space, but other consequences of displacement and isolation are equally, if not much more, destructive.
Sport is particularly well adapted to aiding integration. Daniel Koehler, director of the German Institute on Radicalization and Deradicalization Studies, notes that “in sports, you have a common interest […] so you have the perfect base for a personal relationship to intervene and talk about politics, talk about ideology. And these trainers spend—next to the family, next to the schoolteachers—the most amount of time with these kids when they go training regularly. So they are in a prime position to spot radicalization and do something about it.”
The concern is the access to the “hearts and minds” of those at risk of radicalization before they’re targeted by ISIS recruiters. “Islamic State is arguably the richest and most powerful terrorist organization in history,” said Koehler, in an interview with Westhead. “They have the money to buy skilled headhunters and trained recruiters, and they’ve built their own training manuals and concepts.”
My experience with Syrian refugees has been different. Having worked with a group of friends, family, and volunteers to fund a Syrian family’s immigration and settlement in Guelph, I’ve had the good fortune to have a personal perspective on the matter. By the end of 2016, it’s estimated that Guelph will have received between 300 and too refugees, and heavy-hitters like Jim Estill have supported as many as 50 families independently. In the experience I’ve had, radicalization of Muslim refugees seems like the remotest possibility.Difficulties with integration, however, are a real problem—especially when language barriers have been taken into account. Luckily, sport requires little translation, and allows for interaction between those of all cultural and linguistic backgrounds, histories, and religions.