Radicalized (Part 2): How a Muslim Extremist Changed His Cause | Jesse Morton

This is Part 2 of a two-part episode on extremism.

Jesse Morton was a drug-dealing groupie when he became fascinated with Islam — and converted to it. But, it wasn’t until the U.S. waged the ‘War on Terror’ after 9/11 when Jesse embraced a Salafi-jihadi ideology, an approach to jihadism also taken by groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

In this episode, we take a look inside the life of a reformed Muslim extremist. Jesse shares how he leveraged new technologies to grow ‘Revolution Muslim’, a New York-based jihadist organization that was connected to a number of terrorism cases. On the show, we also talk about individual characteristics that make a person susceptible to recruitment, how kindness can lead to an extremist’s deradicalization and what each of us can do to fight extremism.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Executive Director at The Soufan Center; and Jason Blazakis, Professor of Practice, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies and Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

In conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.