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2014 US-Islamic World Forum

 

 

Hillary Clinton, Former US Secretary of State, Senator, and First Lady
Hillary Clinton, Former US Secretary of State, Senator, and First Lady at the 2011 Forum

 

18 June 2014 WORDE

WORDE will be hosting a working group in this year’s Brookings’ US- Islamic World Forum conference in Doha, Qatar from June 9-11, 2014.


This year’s Forum is entitled “Islam and Inclusion” and will focus on challenges and solutions to inclusion issues relevant to Islam and global Muslim communities in the context of governance, academia, religious institutions and civil society.
Our working group, “Empowering Pakistan’s Civil Society for Countering Violent Extremism”, brings together a diverse range of stakeholders, including US and Pakistani policymakers, CVE experts and analysts, leaders of the Pakistani American diaspora as well as representatives of Pakistan’s civil society.
In addition to hosting three working groups, the US-Islamic World Forum will be featuring several keynote speeches and plenary sessions – the latter which will be webcasted.

 


Working Group Abstract


Pakistan is among the most strategically important countries for the US and the Muslim world. Since 9/11, the US has focused on securing a more stable and democratic Pakistan that is capable of countering violent extremism (CVE), however, despite investing over $30 billion, Pakistan remains a base for numerous US-designated terrorist groups. In lieu of a robust strategy developed by the Pakistani government, Pakistan’s civil society has had to take the lead in CVE. While civil society organizations (CSOs) have developed innovative peace building initiatives at the grassroots level, they must overcome numerous obstacles in creating a nationwide movement. With this challenge in mind, how can the US and international community adopt a more systematic approach to strengthen Pakistan’s civil society? This working group will explore this question, assessing the capacity of existing CVE programs, determining best practices in engaging local actors, and identifying regional challenges to implementing programs. It will also consider how lessons learned in Pakistan can be applied in other countries that are at-risk of violent extremism. Finally, the working group will develop recommendations for national and provincial strategies to empower civil society as a bulwark against extremism. The working groups’ conclusions and recommendations on these issues may be published as papers following the Forum.

 


About the Working Group Co-Conveners


Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi, JD


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Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute and President of the World Organization for Resource Development and Education (WORDE). She recently established the International Cultural Center, the first community center in the U.S. specifically focused on preventing radicalization through educational programming, community service, and community engagement with law enforcement. Her recent acclaim centers on the creation of the “Montgomery County Model,” which has been recognized by the US government as a “best practice” in countering violent extremism domestically.
Dr. Mirahmadi serves on the LAPD’s Community Police Advisory Board, the Director of National Intelligence’s Heritage Council, the Montgomery County Executive’s Faith Community Advisory Board and the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families. She earned her Juris Doctorate from University Southern California.

 


Waleed Ziad


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Waleed Ziad is WORDE’s Director of South and Central Asia projects, and is also completing a PhD in the Department of History at Yale University, studying the historical and philosophical foundations of Muslim revivalist networks in South and Central Asia. His articles on politics and ideological trends in the Muslim world have appeared in the NY Times, International Herald Tribune, Foreign Policy, Christian Science Monitor, the Hill and major dailies internationally. Ziad is also writing a monograph on the early political and economic history of the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier.
At WORDE, Ziad has led fieldwork in 75 cities and villages across Afghanistan and Pakistan to explore local efforts to counter violent extremism. Waleed Ziad received his MA and BA from Yale.

 


Mehreen Farooq


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Mehreen Farooq is a Senior Fellow with WORDE. Her areas of expertise include countering violent extremism (CVE), Muslim community engagement, and grass-roots community development. Since 2011, she has traveled extensively across Afghanistan and Pakistan to interview hundreds of youth activists, religious scholars, and tribal elders to explore their peacebuilding initiatives and has co-authored two monographs on the subject. Farooq is currently working on a State Department funded project to evaluate the efficacy of USG-funded CVE programs in Bangladesh.
Farooq received her BA in Political Science and Leadership from Christopher Newport University and her MA in International Affairs from American University, focusing on the socio-political development of the broader Middle East.

 


Dr. Robert D. Lamb, PhD


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Dr. Robert D. Lamb is a senior fellow and director of the Program on Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation (C3) at CSIS and a research scholar at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland (CISSM). His current research touches on complex violence, hybrid political orders, non state-controlled territories, political transitions, international intervention, absorptive capacity, and alternatives to state building. Dr. Lamb lived for nearly a year in Medellín, Colombia, studying gang governance and legitimacy, and joined CSIS as a visiting scholar after returning to Washington in late 2009. As a strategist in the Defense Department’s Strategy office in 2006 and 2007, he advised defense policymakers on terrorist, criminal, and insurgent networks.
He earned his Ph.D. in policy studies in early 2010 from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy in a program combining security, economics, and ethics. He received his B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Gettysburg College in 1993, spent half a year in Nicaragua with a micro development project, then worked for nine years as an editor and journalist, winning a National Press Club award in 2001, before changing careers after 9/11.