Addressing the root cause of radicalisation

The authorities in the US in partnership with private agencies are engaging community and religious leaders to free some Somali-American youths from their alleged inclination towards terror outfits like Al-Shabab and Islamic State (IS).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had arrested six Somali-American youths between March and September in Minneapolis, home to the largest number of Somali migrants, before they left for Syria to join IS. They are now behind bars.

The Somalis are being supported by the American government to build resilience within the community to address the root causes of radicalisation.

“Law enforcement, investigation and prosecution are one solution to the problem, they are not the only solution… So with that I held meetings with community leaders to work with them to build resilience within the community to defy terror recruit,” said Andrew M Luger, attorney for the district of Minnesota.

The Somali-American Task Force (SATF), a team of young thinkers, is also working with the Somali community to build a better relationship between the community and the local government.

Some SATF members have recently met a foreign press tour delegation from over a dozen countries at St Paul in Minneapolis. They discussed how they are working to identify why radicalisation is attracting the youths and how this obsession can be stopped.

Hodan Hasan, a psychotherapist based in Minneapolis, said there was a summit in the White House in February this year to discuss this issue.

“After the summit a 15-member SATF, including four women, was formed to look into it and come up with solutions,” said Hasan.

They said feelings of powerlessness, isolation and humiliation are pertinent factors that drive youths to join IS. Besides, generation gap between Somali parents and their US-born children is also a cause, they observe.

According to them, children do not discuss anything with their parents and rather like to use social media to quench their thirst for learning. The recruiters send very sophisticated recruiting messages from overseas persuading those youths to join their radical groups.

Fariahio Khalif, founder and executive director of Voice of African Women Inc, commented that depression, isolation and not talking to siblings could be a major reason for feeling lonely that sometimes converts into negative thoughts.

She said they are in constant talks with imams of several mosques, mothers of these children and community leaders. They meet mothers to discuss their children's mental and psychological condition, she added.

“Children come up with several questions to which mothers generally fail to answer,” she added.

The SATF members claimed they are doing a lot of things to bring the Somali youths into the mainstream.

Mohammed Farah, executive director of KA-Joog, an NGO founded to look into the reasons for Al-Shabab recruitment and stop it, said their objective is to give the youngsters a platform and keep them away from negative thoughts.

The NGO was established in 2007 after many Somali-American youths left the USA to join the terror outfit, Al-Shabab.

“Our aim is to take students in a better educational system so that they could be kept away from negative thoughts and influences,” said Farah, adding, none of the students engaged in their educational system has ever joined any extremist groups.

Pointing at some discrimination faced by the Somali youths, Farah said, “We need to change the airport mentality. The Somali youths face a lot of problems there.”

The customs and security guys know who are good and who are bad. But still Somalis face problems and they are working for a positive change, he added.

Citing an example, Farah said one of his acquaintances went to the White House to meet President Barak Obama. “It was easier for him to meet Obama than passing the airport security check,” he added.

Kyle Loven, chief division council and media coordinator for FBI Minneapolis, said young men had travelled en masse from the US to engage in activities on behalf of terrorist organisations overseas, so this was groundbreaking for us.

“We immediately realised that we needed to forge relationships with members of Somali community within Minnesota. And we were able to do so as quite frankly we had the same objective in mind. We wanted obviously to prevent young people to travel overseas to join the groups,” he added.

“…there was lot of concern within the community that the FBI has somehow targeted these young men. But, in fact, we don't target people. When information comes to us that we have to act upon, we have to do so,” the FBI official said.