Final Submission of Laaluanar P2P Challeging Extremism Team of Afghanistan
2nd
, May, 2016
Table of Contents
Executive summary
- Tools: Facebook campaign, website, TV, Radio, blood donation campaign, several conferences and
discussions, essay writing competitions and developing a 100 page chapter on counter violent
extremism and distributing it to several religious schools to use them as their curriculum.
- Defined target audience: At-risk youths. Although this campaign was vital and reachable for each four
target groups. Our team narrowed their campaign on: Credible religious voices and Islamic culture of
CVE (Counter Violent Extremism).
All the events and strategies implemented helped us a lot to extend the message of the program.
It has been estimated that more than 80 percent of young generation of Afghanistan have access to
social media specially “Facebook” and properly use it on a daily basis. Twitter, instagram and telegram
are least used by Afghan people. Other tools including the TV program, radio program, conferences, and
(1) Executive Summary
(2) Primary research
(3) Further researches of the Focus groups
(4) Vision, strategy
(5) Essay Writing Competition
(6) Blood donation campaign
(7) Live Radio and TV programs
(8) Counter messaging Extremists in our
Facebook
(9) Campaigns in university campuses and
religious establishments
(10) Website Establishment
(11) Developing a chapter in the name of “ISLAM
DENOUNCES EXTREMISM”
(12) Budget allocation
(13) Evaluation Metrics
(14) Challenges we overcame
(15) Recommendations
(16) Supports, partnerships and appreciations
essay writing competition were also the best tools for implementing the campaign. Our joint initiatives
had its utmost and incredible several outcomes on the target group. Beside, increasing the general
public awareness of the target group, it was unbelievably welcomed by the target group and the public.
They easily accepted the contents of the campaign because the contents of the counter-messaging
campaigns were extracted from Quran-Karim (Muslims’ holy book) and Hadith (Sayings of Prophet
Mohammad (PBUH) and Imams (A.S). The contents of the campaign simultaneously raised the respect
for human rights, women rights, peaceful living and other shared values.
Note: Every measure was taken for the safety of coordinator and members of the program. (Afghanistan
is a very challenging place in the case of overall threat and being targeted by the Taliban affiliates.) One
of members of our campaign was harmed and threatened by the Taliban. His name was Mahdi
Haidarzai. We took him to the hospital and for several days, he was under treatment.
The overarching goals of our campaigns were:
- To prevent the “At-risk youth” to join extremist and terroristic groups
- To increase the general awareness of the public about extremist groups
- To convey the real message of ISLAM religion about peaceful living to the public so they can
decide to say no to extremists and terroristic groups
- To motivate and engage students to launch their own counter violent extremism initiatives
- To share our experiences and knowledge with university students, community centers,
mosques, social unions, research centers, media outlet, officials of schools and etc.
- To equip them with resources to counter violent extremism in different levels (Our developed
Module of “Islam Denounces Extremism.”
Primary Research Findings:
After many dialogues and discussions (Totally 10 interviews with Islamic scholars, 4
meetings with community leaders and university deans), the members of Laal-U-Anar
P2P: Challenging Extremism Team of Afghanistan decided the followings:
- The key research finding was: “Extremism and Extremist movements including ISIL,
Al-Qaeda, and Taliban are hiding under the cover of Islam religion and justify their
actions by linking them to Islamic teachings and identity.” They have misused Islam
and hidden under the cover of Islam. The conclusion of primary 3 week research on
our initiative and strategy was: the best way to challenge the so-called extremist
movements is the use of Islamic teachings to counter message Extremists and to
disclose their real identities.
The Four steps of finalizing our master plan for the campaign were as following:
• Preparing a contacts directory from influential individuals, Mulas, Community
leaders, Community elders, and etc.
• Contacting them to schedule meetings and discussions
• Sharing ideas and discussions regarding the best ways to use in the campaigns
• Finalizing the decisions and structuring the final master plan for the campaign
Further researches of the focus groups:
Overall source and doctrine for each aspect and tool of the campaign:
The team of Mazar and Heart were divided in different research groups to extract different
contents from holy Quran, Hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other Imams to
counter message extremists and their mission around the world. Furthermore, the team also
focused their research on the ideas and messages of Islamic spiritual and influential leaders on
counter messaging extremism and terrorism. Moreover, the team also worked on the
highlighted news of Extremist’s accomplishments from around the world including
(Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Africa and etc.) which they are in absolute contradiction
with ISLAMIC ideology and teachings. As the result, Extremists were fully exposed to the
public and the people knew their real ideology and accomplishments. All of these extracted
researches were used to counter message the extremists in social media, TV programs, Radio
programs, university conference and other tools. We aimed to have the real impact of the
program and our campaign in all provinces of Afghanistan.
Why we used this slogan: To directly counter message the extremists that Islam is against
extremism and totally denounces it.
Honorable Ms. “Maroofa Zaki” “Afghanistan’s journalist of the year” is one of the examples among 5000
other influential national faces that joined the campaign to Challenge Extremism.
Her message is as following:
“I’m an Afghan Journalist. As a Journalist I know That Extremists are trying to misuse the young
generation of my country but we want to inform the “at Risk Youth” that extremists and their mission
are fake and un-Islamic.”
#IslamSaysNotoExtremism Campaign
Why challenging extremism in Afghanistan?
 Afghanistan has long been a zone of war
and a reign of terror caused by local and
multinational terroristic organizations
like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
 Rapid growth of national wide extremism
and instability
 Formation of various radical and
malicious groups at local, national and
international levels deriving from
Afghanistan
 Ongoing civil war in decades
 Lack of good governance
 Retardation in peace and integration
processes
 To combat against the dilemma/negative
worldviews about Islam and its definition
(Islam phobia)
 Lack of counter messing movements in
social media against Extremists
 Substantial need for countering the
narratives of the extremists
Why targeting “youth at risk” as a potential
group for our research and campaign?
• Youth are the largest number of population
of the country (70 – 75) %
• Youth are dynamics, valuable assets and
fast influential group to challenge the
extremism
• Youth are counted as potential group
targeted by the local extremists
• Youth are getting more marginalized by lack
of support from newly formed Unity
Government -> lead young people to get
interested into extremist groups
• According to the reports of NDS (National
Directorate of Security of Afghanistan),
there is a high potential of Afghan youths to
be indoctrinated by terroristic groups like
ISIL, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Opening minds of communities to expand the true culture of Islam and to
know the message of Islam denouncing extremism and terrorism.
To have positive impression on minds and hearts of the young generation
to take a moderate ideology in their life and to take the challenge to
counter Extremism.
To involve, and motivate the target audience (at Risk Youths) to prevent
them being radicalized and misused by Extremisms
To make a global impact on Islamic worldview against religious extremism
Challenging radicalizing narratives and influences among youths
Engaging the community and the public to raise their voices against Extremism
narratives
Strategy
1 Using different social Medias and social events to target the audiences
2
Establishing a web page to cover the sustainability of the program
3 Developing and broadcasting messages in regards with the religious
extremism through National TVs and Radios with worldwide coverage
4 Raising awareness by launching debates and focus group discussions at
universities and religious centers
5
Creating a network of youth to be the ambassadors of change and to
challenge extremism from each province of Afghanistan
(1) Essay Writing Competition:
The Afghan youths aged between (14) to (35) years old were invited to participate in an Essay Writing
competition on counter messaging extremism and terrorism.
Essays are still under assessment by the members of the Laaluanar team and three essays will be
selected as the top three winners of the competition and will be given prizes. (IPad-Kindle or Tablet).
Writers were from different religious sects – Shias & Sunnis, Hindus, and Christians.
The best 50 essays were published in the Facebook page of the program.
The process of judging for identifying the top three winners are still in process and will be chosen by the
board of 5 members and will be based on the quality, clarity (well-written and coherently structured,
relevance (focused on the topic), impact (has a clear message) of the received essays.
We totally received: 6000 Essays
 53 % of the essays Writers were Female and the rest male
 80 % of the essay writer were aged between (18 to 26) years old
 Both school and university students participated in this program
 Most of the essays were genuine and were written by the writer herself/himself
 It was the first “Essay Writing Competition” which was launched throughout the country
 Students from 21 out of 34 provinces of Afghanistan participated in the program.
We received more than 3000 essays through FB messages, hand-written essays.
The main objective of the Essay Writing Competition was to besiege the hearts and minds of Afghan
youths against extremism and to enhance their critical thinking on challenging Extremism by answering
our three main questions of the Essay writing Competition.
This post was liked by
30,000 people and
reached to 600,000 people
in Afghanistan.
(1)Afghans from 10
different nations
sent their essays.
(2)The announcement
of the Essay Writing
Competition was
also translated in
local languages of
Afghanistan (Dari
and Pashtu).
(3)We received many
thanks and
appreciations form
governmental and
non-governmental
organizations
appreciating
launching this
nationwide academic
initiative.
(2) Blood Donation Campaign:
Launching Blood Donation Campaign
In occasion of bloody attacks on civilians in Kabul (19 April suicide attacks) (Capital of Afghanistan)
where more than 400 innocent civilians were killed and injured, we launched a blood donation
campaign in Kabul and Heart.
In Heart city:
 More than 100 donors contributed
 50,000 CC blood were donated to the
hospital
 Members of the team contributed in
preparing refreshments for those who
donated their blood
In Kabul city:
 More than 500 donors contribute
 250,000 CC blood were donated
 Members of the team launched
campaigns in FB to persuade more
people to join the campaign and to
help a victim of Extremism
Denouncing the Extremism by inspiring the citizen to donate bloods for the victims of Extremism
(3) Live TV and Radio programs:
Live TV and Radio Discussions: The senior researcher and coordinator of the Laaluanar team
(Dr. Omid) presented live TV and Radio discussions to counter-message extremists and to
extend the message of Islam religion to prevent the “At Risk Youth” joining Extremists by
using Islamic sources.
TV was the best tool that helped us to reach the people in the different parts of Afghanistan
including those living in the suburbs, districts, rural areas as well as urban areas.
The 30 minutes TV and Radio program were broadcasted simultaneously.
Links of the TV and Radio programs in Ariana News:
First part: https://youtu.be/h4q2T4365mQ
Second part: https://youtu.be/6xDDV7co9ac
Third part: https://youtu.be/5Bt7sK4Po_I
Fourth part: https://youtu.be/Mjoc1j0qW4A
Fifth part: https://youtu.be/DhrKqxoce5U
Website of the Ariana News Tv:
http://ariananews.af
Estimated viewers of the Ariana News program:
3,000,000 (World Wide) including
Afghans and Dari speakers in Europe
and USA
Estimated listeners of the program of Ariana FM
Radio:
50,000 (Inside Afghanistan)
(More another documents about the
coverage area of the Ariana and Khurshid
Radio- Tv are included with the submission.
(4) Second TV and Radio program in Khurshid TV:
Link of the program in YouTube:
https://youtu.be/ELO8FTzd-7c
Note: The program in Khurshid TV was not uploaded in
our Facebook Page because of the threats from some
sources. We talked about Essay Writing Competition
on extremism and other counter extremism initiatives
that some sources are interested to know the people
behind these initiatives to target them.
Website of Khurshid Tv:
http://www.khurshid.tv
Estimated viewers of the program:
500,000
Estimated listeners of the program in Khurshid
Radio:
10,000
(5) Counter messaging Extremists in our Facebook Page:
Different contents were posted including the verses from Holy Quran (the great book of Muslims), Sayings of Prophet
Mohammad (PBUH) and Imams (A.S). Using from these sources grantee the best effect of the campaign. Afghanistan
is a religious country and they accept contents persuaded by their religion. Two official languages (Dari, Pashtu) as
well as English were the languages used in the social media campaign.
Name of the Page: International Strategic Studies/‫ﻡﻝﻝی‬‫ﺍﻝ‬‫ﺏیﻥ‬‫ک‬‫ﺍﺕیژی‬‫ﺍﺱﺕﺭ‬‫ﻡﻁﺍﻝﻉﺍﺕ‬
Link of the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/%D9%85%D8%B1%DA%A9%D8%B2-
%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%84%DB%8C-
%D9%85%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AA-
%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA%DB%8C%DA%98%DB%8C%DA%A9-
International-Strategic-Studies-882444755132247/
#IslamSaysNotoExtremism Campaign
Totally 200 posts from Islamic sources including
(Holy Quran and Sayings of Prophet Mohammad
(PBUH) were posted to Challenge Extremism.
YouTube videos and sites were also included.
#Anti-War and women Rights Campaign
More than 50 different posts from (YouTube,
news websites, Islamic websites) were posted
as part of the campaign that all supported the
symbiosis and love between human beings of
east and west.
#AfghanyouthsagainstExtremism Campaign
100 Message of prominent Afghans youths
from civil society activists and university
students were posted to inspire others that
Extremism is inhumane and un-Islamic.
#AfghanvoicesagainstExtremism Campaign
More than 1000 Afghans from different
backgrounds and ages sent their
messages to counter violent extremism
and 100 top messages were posted to
inspire others to Challenge extremism
and terrorism.
We had four parts for the FB campaign as following:
1 2
3 4
(1)
Page details:
* Total likes of the page: 53,085 Likes
* Total Likes of all posts of the Campaign: 150,000 Likes
* Total videos viewed in the Campaign: 50,000 Views
* Total Post Reached for the Whole Campaign: More than 2.5 Million People
* Total Post Engagement: 300,000
* Languages used: English, Two official languages of Afghanistan (Dari and Pashtu)
* Response Rate of the page for answering the questions of the Fans: 79 %
When moderates keep silent, extremists strongly claim that they are right!
Objectives of the Campaign on “at Risk Youths”:
(1) To address the “at Risk Youth” about the fake and un-Islamic mission of
Extremists
(2) Creating a platform for everyone to vocalize and to state their ideas
denouncing terrorism and Extremism
(3) To initiate fruitful discussions on countering violent Extremism
(4) Empower youths to launch their own narratives against Extremism
(5) To actively counter message the different narratives of Extremist groups
Screenshot from the insight of the Facebook page: (Success Demonstration of the FB Campaign)
The above depiction is a screenshot form the insight of the FB page that shows
only the details of the page in a timescale of 7 days. However, the duration of the
campaign was more than 42 days. If we count them totally, there will be a huge
number and it all demonstrates the success of the Facebook campaign.
Detials of the Five Generated Videos of team (TV Campaigns) which were directly uploaded in
the page of the Campaign lecturing on “Extremism and the message of Islam for “At Risk
Youths.”. The details are as following:
Screen shot from the insight of the FB page (Total Viewed and Reached)
5. Campaign in university campuses and religious establishments:
4 discussions and lectures were conducted at 4 universities in the two big states of the country.
Campaigns: (lectures and debates for university students on Challenging
Extremism)
Totally: 500 students benefited from the lectures
The main topics of the lectures were:
 The message of Islam for a peaceful and moderate living
 The message of Islam on Extremism and terrorism
The main objective of
the lectures and debates
were to prevent the “at
risk youth” to be
recruited by Extremists.
The risk is still very high
among students of
religious schools.
Campaigns (lectures in religious centers where, sometimes
they are Extremists themselves.)
We organized the lectures with the mentors of the centers and gave our
developed chapter “Islam Denounces Extremism” to the mentors of those
religious learning centers to use the contents of the chapter in their lectures.
They didn’t let us to use our English banners in the Campaign and we were not
also permitted to lecture on these topics as a foreign partner. But the overall
message of campaign reached by their mentors to the target group.
Totally: 1000 Religious students benefited from the lectures
The main topic of the lectures were: Islam is against Extremism and we need to
fight against them
Pictures in the
above Page
Pictures in the
following page
6. Five lectures were helped and sponsored by the team in religious
centers to challenge Extremism (Note: English Placards and Banners were prohibited
to be used in the campaign because some of the people there are against English Speaking
countries.
(7) Website:
Constructing a website page
Please check: http://internaitonalstrategicstudies.org
 To maintain the activities even after the campaign ends
 Using the contribution of team to updating
 Adding weblogs into the page
 Connect it with other international pages to make a remarkable difference in counter
violent Extremism
The website is in the air with several contents challenging Extremism and soon
will be updated with different articles, messages and videos countering violent
Extremism.
3000 Website clicks
(8) Developing a Chapter in the name of “Islam
Denounces Extremism”
 To counter message the narratives of the Extremists that justify their actions in the of Islam.
 To combat against Islam Phobia
 To emphasize principles of Islam is based on the moderation and it condemns any
violate/radical derives
 To reveal and highlight the true culture and ideology of Islam
 To denounce the violate acts/derived by extremist groups
 To change the minds/attitudes of potential target groups about the facts of Islam
 To minimize the opportunity of the terrorist groups to use Islam as a tool to approach their
notorious sources and to implement their vicious strategies
Our Chapter “Islam denounces Extremism” was distributed to 5 different religious schools in Mazar-eSharif
and other provinces. The name of the 5 religious schools which received our chapter is as
following:
1. Jamiatul – Mustafa Religious school with (2000 preachers)
2. Assadia Religious school with (5000 preachers)
3. DarulHifaz – Rawza Mubarak with (340 preachers)
4. DarulKhidab – Hazrat Noh with (500 preachers)
5. Darul-Olom Hanifia with (1200 preachers)
The “Islam Denounces
Extremism” is a 100 page module
developed by the members of the
team using Islamic sources and
teachings to Challenge
Extremism.
Budget allocation:
The budget of the program was contributed by the team as well as the official
2000 USD.
The breakdown for the budget is as following:
(1) Supporting team’s research (30%)
(2) Two boosted posts for the Campaign (10%)
(3) Banners, advertisements and other campaign materials (20 %).
(4) Prizes for the winners of the three first winners of the “Essay writing
competition” (30%).
(5) TV, Radio and Conference related campaigns (10 %)
Contribution of the team: 1800 USD – They were mostly used for
transport, providing refreshments for the participants of the campaigns,
providing refreshments for the Blood Donation Campaign and etc.
Evaluation metrics: (Several documents are included with the submission)
However, measures for the success of each of our activity (FB, TV and Radio Program, Essay Writing Competition,
blood donation campaign, website) are characterized in the end of that activity. But here we want to include some
new aspects to showcase that the campaign was successful and result oriented.
(1) Questionnaires: before starting the campaign especially our conferences both in universities and religious
schools called Madrasa, we asked and assessed the ideology of the participants toward topics like: JIHAD,
TERRORISM, ONGOING WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, TORTURING PEOPLE and other special questions that we
wanted to see if we can moderate their ideologies towards these topics.
The result of the interviews that we had after the campaign was:
 Most of the audiences of this campaign from different places said: “Participating in this discussion,
enabled us to identify the potential challenges and now we are determined to combat against
extremism.”
 The audiences of the campaign in Heart said: “We learned that youths are the ambassadors of change to
bring peace and stability by taking active role in denouncing extremism and terrorism in Afghanistan”.
 82 % of the participants told that they have been told new information that can change their ideology
towards these topics
 12% of the participants told that they will further discuss these issues with elders of their community and
family to be sure if they are acceptable or not.
 6 % of the participants tried to challenge the contents of the lectures and said No to any new change in
their ideologies towards these topics
Track of records from media and official governmental and non-governmental sources
confirmed the success of the program on public. Different people and individuals
appreciated this effort very much.
Challenges we overcame:
 Constant security threats from the affiliates of the Taliban and ISIL for the members of
Laaluanar Challenging Extremism team. (Four Northern provinces of Afghanistan are reported
to be a battle ground for ISIL and 10 other provinces for Taliban.)
 Severe weather conditions
 Risk of being targeted and tortured by the local extremists.
 Several different networks tried to identify the people behind the campaigns.
 Being isolated by some of the community members because they disliked what we have
achieved.
 Budget limitation – contribution of members
 Lack of access to social media for all audience groups
 Internet problems: as they are sometimes weak
Mahdi Haidarzai, 22 years old and member of the team was appointed to distribute the hard copies
of the “Essay Writings Competition” to Balkh District so more students from suburb and rural areas
could participate in the competition, but unfortunately he was beaten and injured by local
extremists to give up and to stop working for the team. He was in hospital for several days.
The Challenging Extremism team was stationed in northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif which during the
campaign, several neighboring provinces including their districts were active zones of war by terrorists and
extremists. A district named “Aqcha District” in distance of 90 km (one hour distance by car) from Mazar
was an active zone of war in the last days of the Campaign. (10-30 April) Campaign.
Recommedations:
• Consider Afghanistan as an exceptional member of CVE initiative
• We have found in our researches that the best way to challenge Extremist
groups like ISIL is to use the Islamic sources (Holy Quran and Sayings of
Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)) to Challenge them and to showcase that
they and their mission are fake and un-Islamic. Using another sources to
challenge them are less effective because the religious societies seek for
authentic sources and they sometimes think that another sources are
deceptive. Islamic verses can effectively challenge them and can disclose
their real identities.
• We have found that by more budget and resources, we can widen our
activities and we can best challenge the Extremist groups in Afghanistan.
• Consider Afghanistan as the reign of terror and an active battle ground for
Extremists and fundamentalists. More other programs are needed to be
launched to denounce terrorism and extremism for ensuring the stability
in Afghanistan and in the world.
Supports, Partnerships and Appreciations:
The following universities and organizations declared their full support for continuing
the Challenging Extremism Effort in Afghanistan.
 Aria and Rahnaward universities pledged to help us in continuing our efforts and
to launch new campaigns for the rural public.
 ATN News Pledged to launch more TV programs including debates, discussions
and campaigns to challenge Extremism in Afghanistan.
 ISS: (International Strategic studies) pledged to help us to deepen our researches
on Extremism and Terrorism in Afghanistan.
We the members of Laal-u-Anar Foundation want to appreciate the philanthropic
and altruistic efforts of the State Department, Edventure Partners and those involved
in this great program. We really enjoyed implementing the Challenging Extremism
Effort in Afghanistan.