Ahmad El-Muhammady
Contact
Dr. Ahmad El-Muhammady is an Assistant Professor at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC), International Islamic University Malaysia. Currently, he is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), The Hague. Now, he also involves in an ongoing project to develop Malaysia’s National Action Plan for Countering and Preventing Violent Extremism (NAPPCVE) initiated by the Institute of Public Security of Malaysia (IPSOM), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA).
Since 2011, he works closely with the Special Branch’s Counter-Terrorism Division, Royal Malaysia Police and Prison Department to implement the Rehabilitation and Deradicalisation programs for individuals detained under terrorism laws in Malaysia.
Ahmad is also a member of Deradicalisation Panel and Expert/Specialist appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs for cases investigated under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) 2012 and Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) 2015. The appointment requires him to provide analysis on materials retrieved from the suspected militants and testify in Malaysian High Courts as an Expert Witness in numerous terrorism cases involving former members of Jama’ah Islamiyah, Tanzim al-Qaeda Malaysia and ISIS. His testimony led to the conviction of more than twelve individuals charged under terrorism laws.
Prior, he was a consultant to UNDP (2019), and co-authored a report with Ben Schonveld, senior consultant at the United Nations on the return of foreign terrorist fighters in Southeast Asia. Ahmad also served as think-tank member (2014-2019) and consultant (2018-2019) to the Institute for Youth Research Malaysia (IYRES), Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia to study youth radicalisation. His team interviewed 39 convicted individuals in Malaysian prisons to construct psychological profiles of the youth involvement in militancy.
Besides that, he also serves as Advisory Committee Member at Global Peace Institute, United Kinddom and Associate Fellow at the Accounting Research Institute (ARI), Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia.
Ahmad regularly appears in the media and has been interviewed by Al Jazeera, TRT World, Channel News Asia (CNA), South China Morning Post (SCMP), Arab News, News Straits Times, The Star, Berita Harian, and News Straits Times (NST) Malaysia.
He graduated from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) with B.A. and M.A. in Political Science and obtained his PhD from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC), Malaysia with dissertation entitled “The Ideological Formulation of Jama’ah Islamiyyah and Malaysia’s Rehabilitative Approach in Negotiating Jama’ah Islamiyyah Discourse, 1993-2012”.
Publications:
El-Muhammady, A. Radicalisation and Paramilitary Culture: The Case of Wanndy’s Telegram Groups in Malaysia in Brad West and Thomas Crosbie, Militarization and the Global Rise of Paramilitary Culture Post-Heroic Re-imaginings of the Warrior, Springer, 2021 (forthcoming) (co-author: Dr. Murni Wan Mohd Nor, Universiti Putra Malaysia).
El-Muhammady, A. Malaysia: Balancing National Development, National Security and Cybersecurity Policy in Scott N. Romaniuk and Mary Manijikian, Routledge Companion to Global Cyber-Security Strategy, London: Routledge, 2021.
El-Muhammady, A. Radicalisation Model Learning from Malaysian Militant-Extremist in Rohan Gunaratna and Sabariah Hussin, Terrorist Deradicalisation in a Global Context: Success, Failure and Continuity. London: Routledge, 2020.
El-Muhammady, A. Homecoming: The Returning of Foreign Terrorist Fighters in South-East Asia. Bangkok: United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 2020 (co-author with Ben Schonveld, UNDP).
El-Muhammady, A. Applying Wasatiyyah Approach in De-Radicalization Programs in Mohd Mizan Aslam and Rohan Gunaratna, Terrorist Rehabilitation and Community Engagement in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, London & New York: Routledge, 2020. (co-author: Dr. Ahmad F. Yousif, Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Brunei).
El-Humammady, A. Malaysia in the Post-IS Era, East Asia Forum, Australian National University (ANU), 6 April 2020. https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/04/06/malaysia-in-the-post-is-era/.
El-Humammady, A.External Conflicts and Malaysia’s National Security: The Case of Daesh, Journal of Defence and Security, The Malaysian Institute of Defence and Security (MiDAS), 2017.
El-Humammady, A. Profile of Youth Involvement in Extremist Activities and Guidelines for Preventing Radicalism and Extremism Among Youth and Society. Kuala Lumpur: Institute for Youth Research Malaysia (IYRES), 2017. The summary of the report can be read here: https://www.ippbm.gov.my/dokumen/Guidelines%20Extremisme%20Final.pdf.
El-Humammady, A. Countering the Threat of Daesh in Malaysia, Regional Programme Political Dialogue Asia and the Pacific, Singapore: Konrad Adenauer Foundation and International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Nanyang Technological University, 2016 (book chapter).
