WASHINGTON — Ahmed Abdellahy would spend hours online reading jihadist manifestos and watching radical propaganda videos. His curiosity was satiated by the thousands and thousands of online materials that were aimed at recruiting youth.
How social media radicalizes vulnerable youth from Medill Washington on Vimeo.
Abdellahy bought into the ideology, rejecting anyone outside of Islam and even changing his appearance. But the more he watched the more he discovered contradictions and inconsistencies in radical teachings. His interest led him to question his convictions, until he realized what he was reading on a computer was very different to the realities of extremist ideologies in the Middle East.
Now an advocate for using social media to de-radicalize youth, Abedellahy spoke at the New America Foundation Tuesday about how he found his way in — and ultimately out — of radical Islam.