Our Stakeholders package contains courses which offer an overview of Training the Trainers Package, as well as key relevant themes such as Islam Awareness, Denominational Diversity, Islamophobia, and Extremism. These are designed for front-line practitioners and partners, and are aimed at those involved in an operational capacity including Police, Probation, Prison, Youth Services, and Education.
This course explores the history of Muslim extremism and looks closely at lessons learnt from Islam’s first encounter with extremism, the Khawarij. It provides an overview of contemporary Muslim extremist groups and explores the link between faith, politics, and extremism.
Extremism is not a static mindset but the product of a range of factors, including both personal and environmental. Changing conditions within these, and the interplay between them, may well result in varying degrees of identification with extremist ideas and behaviour. Individuals can also present a range of attitudes within a single subset of values and ideologies, with relatively liberal views in one
area and radical views in another.
Like everyone else, extremists are subject to human needs and frailties and are impacted by society around them. This course will address how to explore the complexities in the background and make-up of individuals, and how to vary interviewing techniques to suit different personality types and encourage engagement and change.
In its broadest sense, Islamism describes activism seeking to bring society, governance, and law closer to Islamic principles. As such, Islamism spans across a broad spectrum, from grassroots activism using peaceful means such as social and religious campaigns and political involvement, to radical fundamentalism advocating the application of an austere and literal interpretation of Islamic law, or Shari’ah. While most contemporary Islamist movements and thinkers have emphasised peaceful activism within the law, more extreme strands have gained traction in recent years with the prominence of groups like ISIS and ALM. As well as exhibiting a disregard for the authority of the state and the rule of law under secular governments, Islamist extremists may also condone or justify the use of violence in pursuit of their goals, chief among which is to establish an Islamic state.
While Islamism draws overtly on traditional religious themes, it has been significantly influenced by modern political theories such as revolutionary socialism. As such, its use of religious language has tended to be with an emphasis on political, rather than spiritual or theological, goals. This course looks at important questions of faith, identity, and activism in understanding Islamism, as well as the role of environmental factors such as discrimination, foreign policy, and repressive regimes in Muslim lands.
Many people find it difficult to differentiate between legitimate Islamic practice and extremism. Like most other religious communities, Muslims are not homogenous in their cultural heritage, traditions, and approaches to practicing their faith, but represent significant diversity. However, there is a set of core beliefs and practices that are common to most mainstream Muslims. To develop a good working relationship with Muslim communities it is important to avoid conflating conservative values with extremism. Apart from the very real potential to alienate and feed into a sense of anti-Muslim bigotry, misidentifying normative Islamic practices as evidence of extremism can mean a squandering of limited resources on false-positives.
This course will provide an insight into:
Developing an understanding of the spiritual dynamic of Islam and its fundamental role in shaping attitudes and approaches to practicing faith and viewing the world. With a focus on faith, compassion, chivalry, and virtue, this course draws on Scripture and examples from the life of the Prophet (pbuh) and early believers.
This course provides an outline of core Islamic beliefs and practices as well as an overview of Muslim community demographics with a particular focus on Muslim diaspora in the West.
Every institution will have their own specific needs and challenges and SCET will endeavour to create a package that meets your requirements. You can create your own bespoke package from the list of topics and sub-topics mentioned above, or apprise us of any other area you would like us to provide training for.
Please note: Module lengths are a guide only. They can be
tailored to individual needs
