When Zerqa Abid founded My Project USA about a year ago, her goal was to protect and empower impoverished Muslim-American children in the Hilltop against the drug dealers, gangs and human traffickers who might prey on their vulnerability.
But she didn’t stop there.
Last month, at a My Project USA conference focused on public service, she invited four speakers to present a segment on identifying and stopping violent extremism. The event, at Columbus State Community College, opened eyes to the extensive social-media recruiting efforts of groups such as Islamic State and encouraged youths to be wary.
“People are not very aware,” Abid said. “We think it’s important that we educate our community and our parents exactly as we are educating them about drugs, exactly as we are educating them about human trafficking, because all of these are important issues.”
Abid’s effort is among those being used by law-enforcement and community and religious groups in central Ohio to fight extremism.
Mosques have programs designed to prevent young people from feeling alienated and to give them a sense of community that keeps them from falling prey to “these very ugly messages on the Internet,” said Romin Iqbal, staff attorney at the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The Abubakar Asiddiq Islamic Center on the West Side works on two fronts: educating parents, many of whom are immigrants from Africa and might not know English or be Internet savvy, and working with youths who are like typical American teens, said Horsed Nooh, director.
Nooh said the congregation works with parents on ways to prevent radicalization, giving them social-media tips and the names of specific Muslims considered to be extreme.
Young people are encouraged to volunteer in the community, to gain a sense of belonging in America and to become productive members of society.
Nooh offers classes that teach a “beautiful image of Islam” — much different from that presented by Islamic State — as well as ways to cope with Islamophobia. He also presents a live television program that addresses extremism and radicalization that is broadcast from a local studio and available around the world.
Imran Malik, chairman of the board that oversees Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard, said the mosque has worked to break cultural taboos that kept Muslims isolated and to increase outreach, interfaith work and community service.
Further, he said, he has seen a shift from teaching youngsters simply the fundamentals of Islam to include the application of the faith, such as ways to serve others.
Concerns have arisen amid public reaction to terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. But potential threats aren’t always so far from home.
In April 2015, federal authorities broke up an Islamic State recruiting ring in Minnesota, arresting six Minneapolis men who were trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS. Here in Columbus in February 2015, 23-year-old Abdirahman S. Mohamud was arrested at his West Side home, accused of having contact with Middle East terrorists; he faces charges of providing support for acts of terror and money-laundering in support of terrorism.
Raising concerns for local Muslims are “stories in Europe and elsewhere that teenagers would disappear,” said Abdi Soofe, a New American Initiative outreach coordinator for the Columbus Community Relations Commission.
At the Focus Learning Academy in the Northland area, parents have been offered Internet-safety sessions. They warn parents about extremists reaching out to kids through the Internet, as well as about sexual predators, cyberbullying and the risks of sharing personal information, said Shasmo Yakoub, a school secretary.
Many of the K-8 school’s roughly 400 students come from Somali, Kenyan, Ugandan and Egyptian backgrounds, Yakoub said.
Further, federal and local law-enforcement authorities hold regular meetings with Somali and other immigrant leaders to build relationships and share information, said Abdi Farah, a senior policy adviser for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington, who maintains a home here.
U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart of the southern Ohio district regularly meets with mosques and other groups to offer sessions on Internet safety. He said the buzz from parents is “how can we protect against this?”
And though Abid said she has not heard of any immediate concerns about radicalization among the children she serves, the pervasiveness of online recruiting means “it can happen to anybody, any time.” Through her program, youths are paired with mentors and have completed several community-service projects, from neighborhood cleanups to delivering hot meals to the needy to a toy drive.
“I believe whatever is going on right now in the world, in the Islamic world in particular, Muslim-Americans have a huge role to play, and this is the only way that we can empower our youth and empower our people.”