22. Radicalized (Part 2): How a Muslim Extremist Changed His Cause

This is Part 2 of a two-part episode on extremism.

Jesse Morton was a drug-dealing groupie when he became fascinated with Islam — and converted to it. But, it wasn’t until the U.S. waged the ‘War on Terror’ after 9/11 when Jesse embraced a Salafi-jihadi ideology, an approach to jihadism also taken by groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

In this episode, we take a look inside the life of a reformed Muslim extremist. Here, Jesse shares how he leveraged new technologies to grow ‘Revolution Muslim’, a New York-based jihadist organization that was connected to a number of terrorism cases. On the show, we also talk about individual characteristics that make a person susceptible to recruitment, how kindness can lead to an extremist’s deradicalization, and what each of us can do to fight extremism.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Executive Director at The Soufan Center; and Jason Blazakis, Professor of Practice, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies and Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

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