The Director appears on the BBC World Service's "Weekend" programme, 10th January 2015

Oliver McTernan was invited  to speak on the BBC World Service's "Weekend" programme, to discuss recent global events and the work of Forward Thinking. Much of the discussion naturally focused on the horrific terrorist attacks that had taken place in Paris and their potential ramifications.In the course of discussions, Oliver challenged conventional programmes of "de-radicalisation", suggesting that a greater emphasis must be placed on ensuring a deeper level of religious literacy amongst young people especially. Many of those who carry out such activities claim to do so in the name of religion, but in reality have little or no grasp of the fundamentals of their Islamic faith. If they were true believers, he stated,  with a sufficient level of religious literacy and understanding to provide a moral compass of what is right and wrong, they would be unlikely to listen to the messages of the small group of extremists that seek to inspire them to act in such a merciless manner.The full programme can be accessed on the BBC's website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02g0clv over the next month.