County Durham man launches counter-extremism educational programme

By Kris Jepson

A County Durham man has launched The Harmony Initiative programme, which is aimed at educating people about Islam in order to fight extremism.

Ifty Rafiq, 36, says his family have independently funded the programme, which includes educational videos, booklets and lesson plans for schools and businesses, in order to complement the Government's Prevent strategy.

Watch @krisjepson's report here:

During an event hosted by the Jamia Masjid Al-Madina Mosque in Middlesbrough, Mr Rafiq and the Imam, Naveed Saddique, signed a pledge to "eliminate intolerance, promote community cohesion and tackle extremism".

Mr Rafiq told ITV News the educational videos would help dispel myths about Islam and Muslims. He said these misconceptions cause community tensions, which are then exploited by extremists who target vulnerable young people to radicalise.

Mr Rafiq said he hopes to roll out the programme to institutions across the region and ultimately the UK.

The Harmony Initiative is still in its infancy, but organisations like Middlesbrough based Media Cultured, run by Amjid Khazir, have been running similar projects for several years.

The "pioneering" and "innovative" methods used by Media Cultured have been recognised internationally and endorsed by the former independent terrorism legislation reviewer, Lord Carlile.

At a session last year, supported by Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner, Barry Coppinger, Mr Khazir showed ITV News how his sessions work.

During that particular session, teachers learned how to arm pupils with strong theoretical arguments in order to challenge extremist ideology that may come their way.

Professor Matthew Feldman, an extremism expert, attended the session last July and told ITV News: