US-Iranian Inter-religious Delegation (Completed Program)

Over a four-year period between 2003 and 2007, ICRD embarked on a number of multi-track diplomatic initiatives between US and Iranian religious and civil society actors and policymakers. These included: cultural visits and exchanges; informal dialogues on Capitol Hill; a conference in Rome of American, Iranian, and Norwegian scholars; and a personal exchange between ICRD’s then-President Dr. Douglas Johnston and then-Iranian President Ahmadinejad regarding a proposed ‘peace game’ for selected political, academic, and religious leaders from each country.

ICRD is currently exploring new ways to keep open informal channels for constructive dialogue with Iranians, with an eye toward issues concerning religious tolerance and freedom.

Promoting Inclusivity in Teacher Training in the Arabian Peninsula

ICRD has worked to foster religious tolerance among teachers and incorporate these concepts into teacher training programs in Saudi Arabia. ICRD has developed an interactive series of trainings and workshops on themes of human rights, tolerance, critical thinking inclusiveness, religious literacy, intercultural communications, curriculum design, and conflict resolution. ICRD will pilot test the training with a group of 25-50 Saudi teachers before working with the Saudi Ministry of Education to integrate these themes into current and future teacher training programs within the Kingdom. ICRD seeks to enhance religious literacy and inclusivity in education to better prepare an emerging generation of Saudi leaders to operate in a global landscape. The FY19 project is supported by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the United States Department of State. Secured funds will be utilized and additional funds are being sought to advance the program in FY20 – 22.

Strengthening Education and Teacher Training in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

ICRD has developed a training program for public school teachers in Saudi Arabia, focusing on themes such as Islam and globalization, understanding radicalization, religious literacy, and preventing and countering violent extremism. ICRD’s team of experts developed a training manual that is tailored to the Saudi context, and is preparing to train Saudi public-school teachers so they may integrate these themes into their pedagogy. The methodology will focus on Training of Trainers (ToT) so Saudi teachers and education professionals may integrate the teacher training content into Saudi education institutions or programs. ICRD also will assist teachers in securing support for follow-on projects to sustain the project’s impact. This project aims to impact hundreds of thousands of Saudi students and help to advance P/CVE efforts by supporting the education sector in the Kingdom. In addition to the teacher training, ICRD will continue the monitoring of Saudi school textbooks for intolerant and violent content. Furthermore, ICRD will review Saudi national policies and programs related to P/CVE strategies and programs in the Kingdom, specifically as they relate to education and teacher training. ICRD will produce a final report with recommendations to inform US and Saudi policymakers about the progress in the Saudi education sector. The FY19 project was supported by the Bureau of Counterterrorism at the United States Department of State. Secured funds will be utilized and additional funds are being sought to advance the program in FY20 – 22.

Education Reform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

In 2011, ICRD launched a program to monitor and support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s effort to remove inflammatory content from its national education curriculum. ICRD’s initial review of the 2012 curriculum was the most comprehensive evaluation conducted at that time and established a baseline to measure future improvements. ICRD’s findings confirmed that the Kingdom had made laudable progress toward reform, but much remained to be done to fully complete the task. These were presented in a House Subcommittee Hearing, linked here.

Between 2018 – 2019, ICRD advanced a second review of the high school curriculum to assess the reforms made to the textbook content thus far and to produce real-time recommendations for key Saudi, US, and global policymakers and experts regarding the on-going reform efforts in the Kingdom. Moreover, ICRD has assessed the social and religious impact of Saudi textbooks in some selected countries of strategic concern (Spain, Kenya, Indonesia, and Ethiopia) and supported the retrieval or replacement of older textbooks containing inflammatory content. The FY19 project was supported by the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the United States Department of State. Secured funds will be utilized and additional funds are being sought to advance the program in FY20 – 22.

Integrating Conservative Religious Actors into CVE

In light of the growing threat of violent religious extremism in the Middle East and North Africa region, ICRD has been exploring innovative strategies to counter the appeal of Jihadi-Salafi groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. Specifically, ICRD aims to critically examine the constructive role that might be played by conservative religious actors – who often possess unique influence with and access to those at-risk of radicalization. Drawing on field research with Salafi and other conservative religious actors (imams, religious students, and educators), ICRD has been developing recommendations for national and international policymakers and practitioners on how to more effectively integrate a range of religious actors and institutions into future initiatives.

In Morocco, ICRD is currently in the process of gathering data from a range of religious actors (including Salafis, Islamists, and others) from across the country, in partnership with a team of local researchers. The findings of this study are outlined in our most recent report, Engaging Salafi Religious Actors in Morocco: The Role of Inclusion in CVE.

Religious and Civil Society Collaboration in CVE

To support the international effort to deter youth from joining groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, ICRD is collaborating with US and transnational organizations to create a replicable and transferable model for training religious and civil society actors to lead community-based CVE programs. In the summer of 2017, this model was piloted in North Africa, with a select group of 16 civil society actors – religious scholars, youth activists, and women religious actors – from communities with a demonstrated risk of recruitment to extremist groups. Participants were trained on international best practices in analyzing the drivers of extremism in their community, developing targeted programming, and utilizing a range of relevant community-engagement skills. Based on this training, participants have developed their own local projects, which will serve as an example for replicating this model in many other contexts.

Global Impact of Saudi Textbooks

In 2012, ICRD conducted an assessment of the extent to which Saudi Arabian textbooks and educational materials have been disseminated to various countries around the world, the findings of which were presented to U.S. and Saudi stakeholders with the hope of informing cooperation on education reform. Through this assessment, ICRD sought to determine not only where these materials were being sent, but also how they have affected the surrounding communities. Building on this initial study, ICRD is currently conducting an in-depth analysis of three focus countries – Spain, Indonesia, and Tunisia – that are each emblematic of the way in which Saudi education materials have been distributed in various regions of the world. This study will inform ICRD’s ongoing diplomatic engagement with U.S. and Saudi officials.

Integrating Conservative Religious Actors into CVE

In light of the growing threat of violent religious extremism in the Middle East and North Africa region, ICRD has been exploring innovative strategies to counter the appeal of Jihadi-Salafi groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. Specifically, ICRD aims to critically examine the constructive role that might be played by conservative religious actors – who often possess unique influence with and access to those at-risk of radicalization. Drawing on field research with Salafi and other conservative religious actors (imams, religious students, and educators), ICRD has been developing recommendations for national and international policymakers and practitioners on how to more effectively integrate a range of religious actors and institutions into future initiatives.

In Tunisia, ICRD partnered with the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) to gather the perspectives of 139 fundamentalist religious actors and nearly 50 government and civil society experts from Tunis (Ettadhamen and Djebel Lahmar), Sousse, Bizerte, Kasserine, and Ben Gardane. The findings of this research are summarized in the ICRD report Reimagining the Religious Sector, which explores the challenge of strengthening religious alternatives to Jihadi-Salafism.

Faith-Based Reconciliation in Syria (Completed Program)

ICRD conducted faith-based reconciliation seminars for prominent civil society leaders from tribal Arab, Kurdish, Alawite, Syriac Christian, Shi’a and other Sunni communities aligned with the Syrian opposition. This program promoted peaceful coexistence among local communities, even in the midst of the national civil war, and prepared communities for rebuilding a future Syria. This led to the creation of a social contract in which community members committed to promoting inter-group reconciliation, collaborative problem-solving, and civil society empowerment. ICRD hopes to continue with this effort as future circumstances permit.

Enhancing Citizen Participation in Yemen’s Political Transition

Since 2015, Yemen has suffered from a brutal civil war that has resulted in the death of more than 100,000 civilians, the devastation of national infrastructure, widespread famine, and the worst outbreak of cholera ever recorded. ICRD, based on identified needs and requests, is working to strengthen civil society’s capacity to grapple with these local challenges, connecting vulnerable and marginalized populations with local- and higher-level leaders across Yemen. The program bridges longstanding divides between local citizens and government leaders and between civil society and religious actors in working for peace. Often times, government, religious and civil society actors work along parallel lines, heading in the same direction but missing possibilities for strategic collaborating on peace and stability efforts across Yemen. In response, ICRD is working to facilitate local, regional and national level dialogues across these divides and open new lines of communication for local to national level peacebuilders. ICRD is conducting higher-level intra-north, intra-south, and nationwide dialogues and taking a whole-of-society approach to a nationwide phenomenon. The FY19 program is supported by the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the United States Department of State. Secured funds will be utilized and additional funds are being sought to advance the program in FY20 – 22.

Enhancing Citizen Participation in CVE in Yemen

In the midst of the ongoing violent conflict in Yemen, dangerous violent extremist groups have grown in power and influence. ICRD, to curb the growth of these groups, is leveraging its existing networks in Yemen to strengthen citizens against violent extremism. Taking a whole-society approach, ICRD is working to build the capacity of local religious leaders, educators, and civil society leaders in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) – focusing on areas at direct risk of incursion by violent extremist groups. Through a series of trainings and follow-on community projects, ICRD and local implementers are equipping citizen leaders with skills in P/CVE, conflict resolution, and the transfer of those skills to other community organizers, while facilitating locally-led initiatives to put these skills into practice in addressing drivers of violent extremism. This project is laying the groundwork for the organic growth and sustainability of such locally-implemented P/CVE initiatives throughout the country. The FY19 project was supported by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the United States Department of State. Secured funds will be utilized and additional funds are being sought to advance the program in FY20 – 22.

Integrating Conservative Religious Actors into CVE

In light of the growing threat of violent religious extremism in the Middle East and North Africa region, ICRD has been exploring innovative strategies to counter the appeal of Jihadi-Salafi groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. Specifically, ICRD aims to critically examine the constructive role that might played by conservative religious actors – who often possess unique influence with and access to those at-risk of radicalization. Drawing on field research with Salafi and other conservative religious actors (imams, religious students, and educators), ICRD has been developing recommendations for national and international policymakers and practitioners on how to more effectively integrate a range of religious actors and institutions into future initiatives.

In Yemen, ICRD engaged more than 200 religious and civil actors from Sana’a, Aden, Abyan, Taiz, Lahj, and Hadramaut. This study highlights the important role of community actors in CVE, even in the midst of violent conflict. The findings can be found in ICRD’s report, Addressing Jihadi-Salafism in Yemen: The Role of Religion and Community in the Midst of Civil War.

Countering Violent Extremism and Addressing Local Conflict in Yemen

In 2014, the government of Yemen collapsed under the strain of intense internal conflict, which provoked a regional military response, a massive humanitarian crisis, and widespread community instability. In the midst of this challenging environment, ICRD has been working with various local partners, as well as the U.S. Institute of Peace, to strengthen the capacity of religious and civil society actors to resolve local conflicts and counter violent extremism. ICRD’s approach includes the training of local trainers, facilitation of local dialogues, and locally-driven community projects. By enhancing the capacity of conflict resolution practitioners, this project aims to reduce the operating space and influence of extremist groups such as Al Qaeda, who purport to establish law and order. Building on the lessons learned from these trainings, participants have gone on to develop and implement a number of initiatives that address the drivers of violence and extremism at the community level.

ICRD’s 2017 publication, Empowering Yemeni Peacebuilders: The Intersection of Conflict Resolution and CVE, offers a systematic overview of that methodology with personal reflections from those impacted by the work on the ground. ICRD is currently working to expand this program to engage additional religious leaders and civil society partners throughout the country.

Yemen’s Marginalized South

Following the overthrow of a long-standing dictatorship in 2011, the Yemeni government began a delicate political transition. The process failed to overcome challenges with certain political interest groups, leading to a spiral of violence that has left the country in chaos. In an effort to understand how this transition could have been conducted more effectively and inclusively in order to inform future efforts, ICRD began a study of Yemen’s southern governorates, which have been the site of multiple political and religious insurgencies. In 2014, in partnership with local researchers, ICRD conducted surveys with over 400 southerners to assess their attitudes toward Yemen’s 2013 National Dialogue Conference, in addition to various aspects of the political transition and prospects for future stability.

The findings of this study – along with recommendations for ensuring a more inclusive transition process in the future – were published in a 2016 report, titled A Fractured South: Addressing Separatism and Other Challenges Amidst Yemen’s Political Tumult. Drawing on these recommendations, ICRD has developed a program to strengthen the political inclusion of Yemeni communities and to facilitate reconciliation between divided factions.