| Recommendations emerging from this report: • It was recommended that there should be more work with young people to tell them what it is like to be in a movement: how you are manipulated, told lies, how you will be used and incited to violence; also what the effect will be on family, future and work. Participants were often bitter about ‘lost years’ they had given to movements, with little reward or negative impact. Rather than moralising to the young, they felt it was better to show them the harsh realities of what is essentially cult involvement. Videos, school packs and personal visits by formers could explain the journeys, and the consequences of imprisonment or being killed. • Participants recognised that joining a political party is too slow for many in terms of creating the change they want to see. A recommendation from this is that the idealism should be tapped into, but young people should be given skills to organize politically in a ‘good’ local cause – for example, saving your library or swimming pool. This matches the recommendations by Davies (2014), particularly around critical or constructive idealism. Interventions with young (or even older) people would be more than just mentoring and attempts at disengagement and be more about diversions of passion. The desire to preserve and protect community, which was part of the radicalisation, can be channeled into a positive community activity. • In terms of families, there were a range of views. Families were seen as influential when someone is thinking of leaving a group, but one far right former felt the families would need a good education themselves around what movements stand for, to have some answers to questions straight away, before an uncertain extremist reverts to his or her original views. Others felt there should be direct family intervention, in that some of the wives and girlfriends of extremists were just as extreme or racist if not more so; or that their children would learn from them. • Hence in terms of school-based work, if students were expressing extremist views, there should be intervention with their families, not to warn of expulsion, or highly negative implications, but to point out that such views were not acceptable in the school. The key was to say that the school wanted to work with the children, so that the family did not feel picked on for their views but could be part of a dialogue. It was important for schools not to involve authorities too soon, and not to criminalise behavior. Anti-racist work in general was also supported, as were relevant projects in citizenship education. Anti-extremist work should be knit into the curriculum. Participants regretted not having such issues introduced when they were at school. • There should be much more official support for extremists wanting to leave groups, and for their families where relevant (see also Guru 2012 on the neglected needs of families of suspected extremists). Participants felt let down by different authorities, such as the police. There could be a perception that they had brought difficulties on themselves and did not deserve sympathy or protection. There were not so many official avenues for support as could be found in other parts of Europe. • The recommendation for families whose children, spouses or partners had been drawn into extremism against their wishes was to try to remain a source of help. They should give the message that they are always there when needed, and should not distance themselves, however unsavoury or inexplicable they saw the activities. • From far right participants, there was a clear recommendation that government and others needed to understand the power and reach of far right organisations. It was felt that with concentration on Islamic terrorism, the far right groups and what they were planning were receiving less attention. The former far right extremists had considerable experience of the sophisticated functioning of the various movements (command structures, military knowledge from ex-soldiers and from manuals, strategising, recruitment and grooming, training camps etc). Increasing and more horrific IS activities were giving them legitimacy and helping recruitment, particularly from those liking violence and liking the idea of revenge. • There was a recommendation about the use of the internet as a tool of radicalisation or deradicalisation: while this may or may not have been central to the formers in this study, they now acknowledge this as increasingly important in radicalisation. ‘Live’ chats with real extremists could be more powerful than just reading about them. It was felt there should be more control on content readily available, but more so, a need to support people to develop tools of resilience, so as not to be taken in or radicalize negatively in response to internet content. |
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorIn July 2017 I completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge, exploring issues of peacebuilding through education in the wake of violent intergroup conflict. This is a space I use to share thoughts and discoveries related to my research. Archives
October 2022
Categories |