ACADEMICS, researchers and campaigners are to meet early next month in a bid to lay the groundwork for an alternative policy on the “war on terror”.
The one day conference in Glasgow on August 5 comes amid concerns military interventions in the Middle East have contributed to the rise of Daesh and led to the radicalisation of some young Muslims in the west.
Held at the city’s CCA, the conference, titled The ‘War on Terror’ In An Era Of Crisis, follows a wave of terror attacks in Britain in recent weeks which has led to a renewed and urgent focus on strategies to address the issue.
The incidents include the attack last month by suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22 at the Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena where 22 adults and children were killed.
Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra, and eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, the youngest victim, were among those who lost their lives. Police said yesterday they believe Abedi did not act alone when preparing the attack.
Human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, sociologist Professor David Miller, Smina Akhtar, an expert on the UK Government’s counter-extremist Prevent strategy, and Narzanin Massoumi, a leading researcher and author of a book on Muslim women, will be among the speakers at the Glasgow conference.
Jonathon Shafi, a co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign, is organising the event which will also launch a new foreign policy think tank based in Scotland.
Shafi said it was imperative for policy makers to develop more effective responses to combat radicalisation and help make the world safer.
“The ‘war on terror’ has failed,” he said.
“Now is the time to open a real discussion exposing the consequences of this, and why we need a new approach. We have gathered together a range of experts and academics in the field for what will be a unique event exploring some of the key issues the failed legacy of the last 15 year raises.”
He continued: “Britain is a rudderless state desperately trying to hold on to the coat-tails of US President Donald Trump. It’s time to stop relying on the same old empire fantasists in the British establishment to design our foreign policy, whether it be on Brexit or on the Middle East.
“It’s possible to have a humane, anti-imperialist, pro-social justice foreign policy, but that will require developing a new foreign policy with new thinkers leading the way.”
Shafi said the day-long event at the CCA will launch the New Foreign Policy think tank which will host conferences and lectures and produce reports articulate an alternative foreign policy.
He said: “From refugees to racism and corporate power, we will develop a holistic approach that will ensure that disastrous methods that have dominated Western foreign policy are challenged.”
Topics to be discussed at the conference on August 5 include islamaphobia, civil rights and political freedom, media reporting on war and terrorism and far-right terrorism.
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