Ed Husain in Scotland's Tackling Terrorism Conference

Friday, 20th June, 2008

Organised by Scotland's influential Holyrood political magazine, over 120 of the country's most powerful public and private bodies attended a national conference on tackling terrorism. Professor Paul Wilkinson, the renowned terrorism expert, and Charles Farr, Director General of the UK Government's Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, spoke before Ed Husain.

Ed spoke about the psyche and mindset of extremists based on direct quotes from British suicide bombers and explained the aspirations of terrorists. Unless we comprehend the pull of extremist ideology, he said, we can't devise effective prevent strategies.

Ed, along with Paul and Charles, fielded questions from the audience about Muslim community participation, deradicalisation, and helping people escape Islamist indoctrination.

Their session was closed by a powerful speech by Shasta Hanif from Edinburgh, highlighting the need to be vigilant against tarnishing the reputation of entire communities as a result of the action of a small number of people.