London football project to help EU tackle youth extremism

Pioneering: children from Southall-based TUFF FC will visit Molenbeek in Brussels. Right, co-founder Dr Shamender Talwar
Daniel Hambury
Vivek Chaudhary22 January 2016

A west London youth project that uses football to combat Islamist radicalisation is to be launched in the Brussels suburb which was home to suspects involved in the Paris terror attacks.

TUFF FC has been credited with diverting about a dozen teenage boys and girls away from the jihadi path, including some who had expressed support for Islamic State or considered travelling to Syria to join the group.

Now a similar scheme will be rolled out in Molenbeek — which has been labelled Europe’s extremist hotspot. Players and organisers will travel there next month to play a match with local youngsters and talk about their experiences. They will also meet EU leaders.

The Southall-based scheme will also expand across London. It has caught the attention of Barack Obama, who has invited members to the White House in April, and Diego Maradona, who is an ambassador for the project.

TUFF FC is being taken to Brussels by London MEP Syed Kamall. He said: “This is an amazing initiative. Clearly something right is being done here to combat radicalism. We must make sure its success is repeated elsewhere.”

More than 100 young people attend TUFF FC training sessions, with boys and girls competing in the London County Saturday Youth League. As well as coaching, they take part in classes where discussion about football tactics is combined with “British values”.

TUFF stands for The Unity of Faiths Foundation. Dr Shamender Talwar, its co-founder along with Anna Prior, said: “What can be more British than football? We use it to teach teamwork, fair play and respect for the rules. It’s about inculcating youngsters with what we consider are core British values and reinforcing that while their religion may be Muslim, their identity is British.

“The most important thing is to create an atmosphere of trust where they are able to confide in us about any radical ideas they may have.” Classes are led by youths who have expressed jihadist ideas in the past, including a girl of 15 who was a target of social media grooming by radicals, and had considered going to Syria to be a jihadi bride.

She said: “There are a lot of vulnerable people targeted by extremists taking advantage of the fact they are confused about their identity. Are we British or Muslim? Because of TUFF I’ve realised I can be both.” Several people linked to November’s Paris attacks, in which 130 died, lived in or had connections with Molenbeek. The area has been linked to other plots and has supplied European militants fighting in Syria and Iraq.

TUFF, which is part of the Football for Unity charity, is seeking help to pay for its trip to the US to see Mr Obama. Visit theunityoffaiths.org/tuff-fc

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