MKA was invited to attend a conference on 'Roots of Violent Radicalisation' hosted at DMU where Reverend Jesse Jackson recieved an honorary degree from DMU. One of the world’s most famous civil rights campaigners, Reverend Jackson, who twice ran for president in America in the 1980s, was a keynote speaker at this event.

The event focused around the root causes of violent radicalisation in the UK, the individuals and groups vulnerable to radicalisation and where this radicalisation tends to take place.

Reverend Jackson’s keynote speech looked into the lessons learnt from the US experience of tackling radicalisation.

Keith Vaz MP, who is chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, said: “The roots of violent radicalisation remains a subject of great national interest".

Other speakers addressed topics such as how the experiences of Northern Ireland informed the Government’s Prevent strategy, a closer look at how big a threat there is from the far right, including challenges facing police today and how to counter radicalisation in prisons.

Invited speakers included:
James Brokenshire MP, Minister for Crime and Security at the Home Office, 
Professor Peter Neuman, from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence,
Ian Paisley Jnr MP, of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party and 
Dr Dipu Moni MP, Foreign Minister for Bangladesh. 
Dr Richard Hall, of De Montfort University.