Exeter peace talk tops one million views

Manwar Ali was one of the UK’s most prominent advocates of Jihad. Now his talk about peace and radicalization of young Muslims has reached over 1 million views.

The former radical jihadist, who participated in violent, armed campaigns in the Middle East and Asia in the 1980s, spoke powerfully at TEDxExeter earlier this year about his remarkable journey from jihadi fighter to renouncing his former views and working for peace. In a little over six months film of his talk has now been translated into 10 languages and viewed over 1 million times online on TED.com.

"For a long time, I lived for death," he said.
“I was a young man who believed that jihad is to be understood in the language of force and violence. I tried to right wrongs through power and aggression. I had deep concerns for the suffering of others and a strong desire to help and bring relief to them. I thought violent jihad was noble, chivalrous and the best way to help.
“At a time when so many of our people -- young people especially -- are at risk of radicalization through groups like al-Qaeda, Islamic State and others, when these groups are claiming that their horrific brutality and violence are true jihad, I want to say that their idea of jihad is wrong -- completely wrong -- as was mine, then.”
Radicalised as a student in the UK, he was deeply concerned for the sufferings of Muslims around the world and believed that the best way to respond and help was through force.

Manwar joined the jihad in Afghanistan to protect the civilian population from Soviet invaders. Over 15 years he fought in Burma and Kashmir, and at home in the UK he was a fiery preacher, raising money and recruiting fighters to join jihadi groups in the Philippines, Bosnia and Chechnya.

At that time this was all completely legal: he never broke any laws. But slowly his doubts grew. Now, after many years devoted to studying the Koran and Islamic law, he says that the idea of jihad has been hijacked and perverted to mean violent struggle wherever Muslims are undergoing difficulties, and turned into terrorism by fascistic Islamists like al-Qaeda, Islamic State and others. He now believes that there are no circumstances on earth where violent jihad is permissible, because it will lead to greater harm.

When so many of our young people are at risk of radicalisation, Manwar now devotes his energy to preventing young people from being radicalised and supporting and challenging others who are returning from violent jihad.

Manwar’s story is also featured in Deeyah Khan’s BAFTA nominated and multi award winning film Jihad: A story of the others.

Claire Kennedy, Curator of TEDxExeter, said: “At TEDxExeter we invite speakers who are changing the world through their work and ideas to share their ideas and hope for the future with us. We are thrilled that Manwar’s talk is now reaching a global audience through the TED platform. We’ll never know what the ripple effects might be, but it is Manwar’s hope - and ours - that through this platform his work and ideas will impact people who are considering violent Jihad and challenge them to reconsider.”

TEDxExeter talks have been viewed more than 7.5 million times and six have been featured on TED.com. Karima Bennoune shares stories of real people fighting against fundamentalism in their own communities; Scilla Elworthy speaks on non violence; Bandi Mbubi calls for fair trade phones; slam poet Harry Baker wins over audiences with his love poem for lonely prime numbers; Manwar Ali and Danny Dorling
In addition, two of the nine talks on TED.com’s Road to Peace playlist are from TEDxExeter, TED’s Talks to Restore your Faith in Humanity playlist contains a talk from TEDxExeter, and Michelle Ryan’s 2015 talk tops the TEDx YouTube playlist on The Way we Work.