E157. Jesse Morton Regrets Being A Terrorist

Jesse Morton was once an American born, jihadist propagandist who ran Revolution Muslim, a New York City-based organization active in the 2000s and connected to a number of terrorism cases. He and Bridget talk about his upbringing, how he discovered Islam and the process of his radicalization, and then the slow evolution of nuance creeping back into his life and what eventually caused him to reexamine his belief system and deradicalize. They cover the work he's doing now with his organization Parallel Networks to intervene with jihadist, far-right and far-left extremism and prevent reciprocal radicalization. They discuss the role the NYPD police officer who incarcerated him played in his deradicalization, whether censorship on social media platforms is effective in combatting terrorism, why differentiating between hate and violent extremism is so important, and Jesse's work trying to create a national program that has a public health, trauma-informed design that would not only help prevent terrorism, but get to the root of the hyper-polarization dividing our society. For more resources check out lightuponlight.online. 

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