Community Responses featuring panelists Hany El Banna, Geoff Loane, Irshad Manji, and moderated by Steven Heydemann at the Overcoming Extremism: Protecting Civilians from Terrorist Violence conference.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted a two-day conference featuring high-profile leaders, experts, and opinion-makers to develop a shared international agenda for protecting civilians from terrorist violence. In addition to examining government responses and legal structures, the conference considers how local communities and international partners can transform the enabling environment that can intimidate local actors into silence or acquiescence. Topics include the impact of new media tools, changes in international humanitarian law, the evolution of terrorist tactics, the proliferation of suicide bombings, and innovative approaches to protecting civilians- CSIS
Bio
Hany El Banna
Hany El Banna is co-founder and President of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW). In 2004, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, the Ibn Khaldun Award for Excellence in Promoting Understanding between Global Cultures and Faiths (UK), and a service award from the Egyptian Medical Syndicate. In 2005 he received the Kashmiri and Pakistani Professional Association Award, in 2006 he was awarded the Asian Jewel Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2007, the UK Muslim Power 100 gave him their lifetime achievement award. He is a member of the Three Faiths Forum (UK), the West-Islamic World Dialogue Council of 100 Leaders group. Dr El Banna is a trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee (UK) and a member of The Advisory Group to the International Department of The Charity Commission (UK). He initiated the Humanitarian Forum, which seeks to build bridges between Muslim and non-Muslim-run NGOs.
Steven Heydemann
Steven Heydemann serves as associate vice president of the Jennings Randolph Fellowship program and as special advisor to the Muslim World Initiative in the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. In December, he will become USIP's Vice President for Grants and Fellows. Heydemann is a political scientist whose research and teaching focus on the comparative politics and the political economy of the Middle East. From 2003-2007, Heydemann worked as director of the Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University. Previously, he served as program director at the Social Science Research Council (1990-1997), where he ran the Council’s program on International Peace and Security and its program on the Near and Middle East.
Geoff Loane
Geoff Loane is the current Head of Regional Delegation of the United States and Canada for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In this capacity he oversees ICRC visits to the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and is responsible for day to day working relationships with the United States Government. Mr. Loane has also worked in the Balkans, Middle East and spent more than a decade in the Horn of Africa during the major conflicts there. These include Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Rwanda. He has also served as the Head of the Emergency Relief Unit of the ICRC in Geneva. Mr. Loane has published books on the unintended consequences of humanitarian assistance and has conducted extensive field research in assistance operations.
Irshad Manji
Irshad Manji is director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University, which aims to develop leaders who will challenge political correctness, intellectual conformity, and self-censorship.
She is also the internationally best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith. She created the acclaimed PBS documentary "Faith Without Fear" which chronicles her journey to reconcile Islam with human rights and freedom.
She also founded Project Ijtihad, which won the Youth Global Leader award from the World Economic Forum for its global campaign to popularize Islam’s own tradition of critical thinking. Irshad’s columns appear frequently in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Times of London.