Countering Radicalization

"He's still abroad, but we would call the situation dissolved in the sense that the radicalization process clearly stopped and he is slowly reverting. There's no immediate danger.
"When the police came in he saw it as proof that he was, because of being a Muslim, being monitored and followed by the police and that they will basically repress him on the basis of his faith."
"We constructed the answers together. So I helped them on what to react to and what not to react to, how to phrase the sentences, what words to use, what to ask, what topics to play with. And this went for months, basically."
"The major goal was, first of all, not to let the contact between the person and the family break up. And the next goal was to intensify the contact so that there would be a chance to interact more with him, and have a strong effect on him."
"And, in the end, we managed that, basically, he completely left out the radical rhetoric when talking or writing to his family, and came to the decision that it wouldn't be a good idea to fight wherever he was, but to settle down and live his life as a Muslim."
"We were the moderator between the police and the family. We could provide essential information to the police for them to decide that no investigation was necessary."
"I'm pretty sure he would have radicalized further and definitely joined the fighting group."
Daniel Kohler, EXIT

EXIT is a Berlin-based organization funded by the German government to counsel family members of radicalized Muslims how best to deal with their family member. A Canadian family called upon EXIT to assist them in dealing with their son who had left Canada to live abroad and who was threatening to join violent militias purportedly in defence of Islam. Saudi Arabia, the very source of fanatical Wahhabism that gave birth to al-Qaeda, has long operated a reorientation program for those arrested as fanatical Islamists turned to terror.

Young Canadian men of Muslim faith have increasingly been travelling to North Africa, Pakistan, Somalia, the Caucasus and Syria, many of whom have joined Islamist militias. While others have conspired to attempt to inflict terrorist attacks inside Canada. "More and more people are acting out, leaving the safety and security of Canada and heading overseas", commented an expert on far right hate groups teaching terrorism studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa.

Professor Abbee Corb has attempted on a number of occasions to apply for federal funding for an EXIT program similar to the one operating in Germany. Though the proposals have not been accepted, a Public Safety Canada official recently travelled to Berlin to visit the EXIT operation there. The RCMP is working in putting together counter-radicalization strategies. "Radical thought is not criminal, it's a societal issue" said Det. Brett Kemp, head of York Region Police hate crimes unit. Until that is, it slides over the scale into violence.

A strategy is set to be be put in place by summer, where York police will draw on counsellors, government agencies, clerics and mentors in the Muslim community to intervene when they suspect someone is at risk of radicalization. EXIT in Berlin began an offshoot of their originally purposed plan to aid Germans to leave neo-Nazi hate groups. They created Hayat aimed at radicalized Muslims. A family-counselling service to advise family members how best to interact with someone exhibiting radical tendencies.

One family contacted EXIT and Mr. Kohler, an analyst and research consultant with the organization, went to work to help them. He attempted to have the family understand what had motivated their son and to produce a strategy of understanding their son's political, ideological views, after they received a goodbye letter, alerting them to the fact he had left the country and was determined to join a jihadist group.

He had emailed his family, "I have to do this, I have to fight for Allah, die for Allah". EXIT analyzed each phrase and sentence, teaching the family to respond to their errant son without sounding as though they were judging him and thus risk steering him even further toward extreme behaviour. He began accusing his parents of supporting injustice: "You're  guilty and Germany's guilty and I have to fight against Germany, I have to die if it's necessary and you don't understand."

Under guidance the family gave no argument back, but continued their emotional support assuring their son that they were simply concerned over his welfare. Eventually he became becalmed, replacing his outlook with a more rational one. Police, alerted to what was happening, left the situation to EXIT (some of whose personnel are former police officers). Mr. Kohler is assured that his intervention made the difference, keeping the young man from fighting as a jihadi.

Perhaps it might be a better idea to campaign against the source of the radicalization, as it is called. That source, needless to say, exists within the Muslim community. In their mosques, when their clerics speak, among Muslim organizers when they invite speakers to address impressionable young Muslims confused by their religion's growing reputation as one of violence.

Impressing upon the Muslim community as a whole their obligation to teach their offspring at home that the values they should be embracing are those of fundamental decency not fundamental Islam.