Muslim YouTube star joins fight against extremism

British comedian Humza Arshad has been making millions of young people laugh with his YouTube channel for the past four years.

But his latest video carries a deadly serious message.

“About a year and half ago the police approached me with this idea to prevent extremism in the UK,” he tells Yahoo. “A lot of young kids were being brainwashed by fanatics in a way that could easily start a flame. We wanted to make a video that would be funny but then right at the end have them learn something from it.”

The short film debuted for the first time this week at Leicester’s Crown Hills Community College.

“Kids nowadays are just so intelligent, they’re so much sharper,” says Humza. “They got the gist of it really quickly.”

The clip will be distributed to schools around the UK, where it will be used to start discussions about extremism.

“As a Muslim I have a duty to show the world we are normal people,” Humza says. “I want the world to see that we’re really stepping up to the plate and making sure that certain individuals don’t make us all look bad.”

In the video, Humza is visited by a cousin who begins to show signs of radicalism: anger, hatred of others, obsession with online videos by extremists… During a confrontation, Humza explains to his cousin why his new way of thinking is anti-Islamic.

“As Muslims we believe that anger and negative thoughts come from the devil,” he says. “So extremism goes against our core beliefs.

“A lot of people think they’re doing things in the name of their religion but when we know Islam is about peace, what they’re doing is kind of defeating the purpose."

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As a comedian, Humza says he’s not interested in directly addressing complex issues like ISIS – he’ll leave that to the politicians. “My aim was pure: I want to protect vulnerable children from falling into false thinking and empower them so that if they are approached, they can think for themselves.”

The video will also be uploaded to Humza’s YouTube channel within the next few weeks as part of his new weekly series, Badmans World. It fits in well with the aim of the new show: to entertain people, but leave them with a message.

“Everyone loves to laugh and have a good time and, you know, I’ve always had messages that I wanted to bring up and I knew that the best way to do it is to do it through comedy,” Humza says. “When you have their full attention and they’re enjoying it, you can leave them with a good message so they go away thinking, ‘I didn’t just enjoy myself; I learnt something too’.”

It’s a message Humza believes transcends the borders of Britain and could apply to young Muslims in the Middle East.

“Be proud of who you are. Don’t let anyone make you ashamed of your religion,” he says. “If you want to stand up for injustice, then do so. But violence is not the way forward.

“Be proud, but be clever as well. If we want to make the world a better place, then as Muslims we need to look at every other way we can to do so.“