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Canadian Muslim Camps Counter Radicalization

CALGARY – A Calgary local Muslim leader has increased his efforts to fight radicalization, using his day camp to tackle the feeling of isolation that some Muslim children experience while trying to integrate into Western society.

“The purpose behind this meeting is to look at the messaging (we’ve come up with), and to get everybody’s opinion on … whether it is going to help us against radicalization,” Mohamed El-Rafih told Calgary Herald on Tuesday, August 16.

“There’s messaging for Muslims and there’s a message for non-Muslims. The message for Muslims is on how there could be misinterpretations on misguided imams and misguided leaders that could make youth vulnerable to radicalization.”

El-Rafih is a known leader in Calgary’s Muslim community as the creator of an anti-radicalization program that he calls Fostering Youth Inclusiveness (or FYI).

The program is a day camp for children aged five to 12 that aims to fight radicalization by tackling the feeling of isolation that some Muslim children experience while trying to integrate into Western society.

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Increasing his efforts, El-Rafih has been gathering a group of local politicians, police, religious leaders and Muslim community members on Thursday to see how his programs can be expanded and brought to high school-age youth.

El-Rafih’s summer day camp reached hundreds of children this year. With the program being held at the Genesis Centre recreation facility in Calgary’s northeast, El-Rafih primarily aimed to tackle radicalization at its roots by focusing on making Muslim children feel like they are a part of Canadian society.

A large part of the program centred around spending time with children from other backgrounds in the community centre, as well as by focusing on sports and arts, rather than exclusively religion.

Along with his efforts to engage with Muslim youth, El-Rafih urged non-Muslims to avoid certain treatments of already troubled Muslim youth which could contribute to a path toward radicalization.

His efforts increased after law enforcement and security agencies thwarted an alleged terrorist plot in southern Ontario last week after Muslims reported their suspicions to police.