Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 05 July
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In the nineties, ‘radical’ was a term of enthusiastic approval. Two decades later, though, it’s the darker connotations of the expression (or word) that take precedence.
In Australia today, white nationalists, ISIS supporters and anarchists frequent news headlines, while the mainstream – public figures, politicians – has emboldened fringe groups. What are the driving forces behind radicalisation in Australia, and how are our law enforcement agencies responding to the shifting threats presented by radicalised individuals?
In this Question Time session, join host Madeleine Morris to put your questions to three experts – and draw from their radically different perspectives on what may be the most complex socio-political phenomenon of our era.
Featuring
Madeleine Morris
Madeleine Morris is a Melbourne-based reporter for ABC television’s 7.30. She was formerly a presenter for the BBC in London and reported from dozens of countries before returning to her native Australia. She is the author of Guilt-Free Bottle-Feeding: Why Your Formula-Fed Baby Can Grow Up To Be Happy, Healthy and Smart, published by Finch.
Irfan Yusuf
Irfan Yusuf is a lawyer and commentator who writes on national security, cultural diversity and conservative politics. He has been published in Crikey, The Canberra Times, The Drum, and the Australian among others. He has appeared on The Project and RN's God Forbid!
Irfan won the 2007 Iremonger Award for Writing on Public Issues and is the author of Once Were Radicals: My Years as a Teenage Islamo-fascist.
He is currently a PhD scholar at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation where he is researching national security and transnational identities of young Australians.
John Safran
John Safran is a Melbourne writer and filmmaker. His recent book Puff Piece, exploring Big Tobacco and vaping, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, his debut Murder in Mississippi won the Ned Kelly ...
Joumanah El Matrah
Joumanah El Matrah is the CEO of the Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights (AMWCHR) and a PhD student at Swinburne University – her Doctorate is on counter terrorism and its impact on Muslim communities. Joumanah has published a number of works on Muslim women in Australia. Trained as a psychologist, Ms El Matrah is a community development worker and has been active in the community welfare sector for 20 years.
She has been a member on many government and community boards, including the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Australian Multicultural Advisory Council, the Victorian Women’s Trust and Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre, Lae, Papua New Guinea. She is currently a Board Member of the Council for Arab Australian Relations, Department of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Annual National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery Government Federal Attorney General’s Department.
Ms El Matrah has raised the profile of the AMWCHR at the national and international level. She was an invited participant to the Ninth Annual Global Women’s Leadership Institute; Realising the Vision of Women’s Human Rights: Understanding the Intersections of Racism, Sexism and Other Oppressions. Joumanah is also a Churchill Fellow, she researched the impact of the human rights movement on Muslim women internationally.