EVENTS

May 26, 2021

Protecting Democracy at Home: Mitigating Violent Domestic Radicalization

On May 26, 2021, Executive Director Naureen Chowdhury Fink and Senior Research Fellow Colin P. Clarke participated in a webinar hosted by The Parliamentary Centre as part of its U.S.-Canadian speaker series, Global Democracy Dialogues. The panel, titled “Protecting Democracy at Home: Mitigating Violent Domestic Radicalization,” discussed the impact of the January 6 insurrection on democracy, counterterrorism, and the challenges of intervention. Commenting on U.S. readiness for mitigating domestic violent extremism, Dr. Clarke stated: “for so long we only wanted to talk about al-Qaeda,” and concluded that “we weren’t prepared for what we had to deal with on January 6.” Ms. Chowdhury Fink discussed the possibility of a commission to review the events of January 6, arguing that a commission “would be very important” to dispel myths with credible expertise.

Additional panelists included: Meili Criezis of PERIL & the Global Network on Extremism and Technology, Mubin Shaikh, former Muslim Supremacist & former undercover national security operative for Canadian security intelligence (CSIS) anti-terrorism, and Brad Galloway, former right-wing extremist & currently Research Analyst/Case Manager with Life After Hate & the Organization for Prevention of Violence. The panel was introduced by Tom Cormier, President and CEO of the Parliamentary Centre and moderated by Gabrielle Bardell, Director of Global Democracy Dialogues. View the full conversation here.