Radicalisation

The experts would have us believe people can be radicalised simply by an elder advising a younger, this has always been a sceptical view as it can take a long time for someone to turn. We now hear that young men from the Molenbeek area of Brussels has been hit recently by a text message from a pre-paid account extolling the youth to rise up and fight the western horde. [how do they only target males?]

Is it really possible for someone to be swayed by one single text message - I think not. However, what happens when the target [excuse the label was not sure what to use] is on the brink of an internal revolution due to age, society etc, perhaps one text message is enough to turn someone into a radical.

Jamal Zaria, imam at Molenbeek’s Arafat mosque,  told the  Guardian that youths in the area, which has a large Muslim population, were being exposed to “something like cancer at a metastatic stage,” and that the authorities and local community were in a race against time to “develop an immune system for the children in our community so that they reject the message of Daesh,” the imam said using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Another question must be is this the first time or is it usual practice and what follows up after the initial text message?

On another note at its conference this weekend, the National Union of Teachers voted down the Prevent scheme after warning it could be used to target young Muslims. The Government's anti-radicalisation strategy urged teachers to refer to police any pupils they suspected of engaging in radical behaviour, but it has been considered a failure since around 90 per cent of referrals result in no action being taken.