President Obama to hear about Professor Bertelsen and co’s Aarhus model

US President Barack Obama is interested in hearing more about the method for preventing the radicalisation of young people which Professor Preben Bertelsen from the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences has helped develop, revealed the Danish Minister of Defence Nicolai Wammen at a meeting on Monday evening in Gellerup, Aarhus.

[Translate to English:] AU-professor Preben Bertelsen er blevet en mere end medievant herre. Og det uanset, om det gælder den lokale presse eller den internationale ditto.

[Translate to English:] Forsvarsminister Nicolai Wammen (S) og borgmester Jacob Bundsgaard (S) var initiativtagere til debatmødet, som længe havde stået i aktivitetskalenderen for Gellerup Bibliotek.

[Translate to English:] Mange har ikke turdet sende deres børn i skole i dag af frygt for, at de skulle blive udsat for ubehageligheder efter terrorhandlingen i København i weekenden, fortalte denne kvinde til Omnibus.

[Translate to English:] Alle pladser var optaget, og mange måtte tage til takke med en ståplads under debatmødet om antiradikalisering på Gellerup Bibliotek.

17 February 2015 by Lotte Bilberg

Jacob Bundsgaard, the Social Democrat mayor of Aarhus, will today on Tuesday 17 February leave for Washington with a personal invitation from US President Barack Obama in his pocket.

The American president is interested in hearing more about the approach towards young people who are in danger of being radicalised, a model that has been successfully practised in Aarhus in recent years.

Godfather to the model

One of the godfathers of what is in everyday speech known as the Aarhus model is Professor Preben Bertelsen from the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at AU. He was also one of the speakers at an open debate on deradicalisation at Gellerup Library in western Aarhus on Monday evening, which was attended by around 250 people.

Explain but do not make excuses

"We must never stop explaining to them. But that’s not the same as excusing them," said Professor Preben Bertelsen during his presentation, with reference to the terrorist actions committed by a young man in Copenhagen over the weekend.

Great deal of international interest

Thirty-one young people left Aarhus to travel to Syria in 2013. Last year that figure was zero, said police superintendent Allan Aarslev from the East Jutland Police during the meeting. During the past six months, results like these have led to more than 200 calls from politicians and journalists from around the world with requests to talk to the professor, police and politicians in Aarhus.

Over the course of the next three days, Jacob Bundsgaard will discuss his experiences of the "Aarhus model" during the conference under the title "The White House summit to counter violent extremism". In addition to the actual conference, the mayor will also participate in a think tank meeting focused on the radicalisation of young people who may be at risk. The question is whether Jacob Bundsgaard will meet President Barak Obama personally.

"I hope I get the opportunity to meet the president. It is a possibility, but obviously, President Obama has a schedule that can change very quickly," as Jacob Bundsgaard said to the local newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende.

Translated by Peter Lambourine.