FORMER EXTREMIST: Usama Hasan
Usama fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation and has been a full-time counter-extremism practitioner since 2012.
Usama, who spent 20 years as part of the Islamist movement, describes growing up in a family with strong extremist beliefs, who felt fearful and excluded in Britain. Through the strong beliefs of his family, he was inducted into puritanical Islamist circles at a young age, which promoted the idea of an Islamic Caliphate. He became the follower of a charismatic Islamic teacher and was drawn into the movement. Being part of the movement gave him a sense of importance and power. Due to his knowledge of the Islam and his knowledge of Arabic he had a high status within the movement, and was regarded as a scholar as well as fighting on the front-lines, even being courted by Al Qaeda. However, he slowly withdrew from extremist circles as he developed a less simplistic understanding of religion and politics and has now left the Islamist movement behind him.