The Abdullah X aims to provide innovative and robust animated / multimedia content to build resistance to extremist narrative and the allure of radicalisation. Abdullah X is a cartoon image of a teenage, Muslim boy who is looking for his identity and place in society. The character has changing appearances to reflect that this is not a particular person but it could be anyone struggling with Issues of identity, faith, belonging, a sense of duty, grievance, injustice, confusion etc. The message is more important than the characters’ look. The choice to use a fictitious character came from the observation that many extremist use their narrative to create an alternative reality that young people engage with online from the confines of their own bedroom. The objective of Abdullah-X is to radically challenge online extremist messaging using hard hitting, robust and specialist, subject based knowledge. But also, in light of much of the extremist content, deliver entertainment, engagement and feed young people’s curiosity.

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