The global rise of violent extremism is one of the greatest problems facing our world today, and it affects us all – especially women, who serve as the bedrock of their families and communities and shape the lives of our future generations. Unfortunately, the peaceful religion of Islam continues to be linked to terrorism – with far-reaching consequences – threatening national unity and our shared civic life.

A fundamental prerequisite of what now has to be a collective and systematic worldwide strategy is to develop and apply a suite of proven, comprehensive, and tactically astute measures over the coming years, based on our shared intelligence and united commitment to peace and goodwill.

WISE embarked on creating a holistic, research- and evidence based approach to the interconnected issues of violent extremism and Islamophobia. We spent 18 months collaborating with 72 expert scholars, religious leaders, and key writers from the US and abroad, before assembling the key propositions submitted into a coherent, overarching framework.

The result is WISE Up: Knowledge Ends Extremism, whose aim is to;

• Improve interaction and understanding across faith-based and cross-cultural communities, and protect minority civil liberties in the U.S by providing American youth who feel threatened with a greater sense of security.
• Enable American Muslims to clearly articulate the distinctions between the peaceful religion of Islam and the extremist ideology.
• Push activist messaging to combat extremist recruitment targeted at young Muslims and to further protect communities against hate and violence.