Who “selected” her? Where, how, and for what, exactly? This article quotes an anthropologist saying that “anyone” can be “radicalized” and that French authorities have not adequately differentiated between Islam as a religion and “Islamism,” in ways that favor the “Islamists.” In reality, however, while it is doubtless true that the French government’s policies on Islam have unwittingly aided the Islamic supremacists and jihadists, the French will continue to have this kind of problem until they recognize how Islamic jihadis use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism. But they will probably never do that.
“French teenage girl caught heading for Syria jihad,” from RFI, March 2 (thanks to Robert):
Earlier this week the girl, from the French city of Grenoble, told her parents via text message that she had been selected to join the jihad war in Syria and had run away from home.
She was detained before boarding a plane bound with a one-way ticket for Istanbul, from where she intended to go to the Syrian border.
Investigators describe her as “heavily indoctrinated” and say that she keeps repeating that she was going to Turkey as a tourist.
After being picked up on Monday, she was placed in the home on Tuesday but managed to run away, only to be caught and returned there.
Anthropologist Dounia Bouzar, author of the book Defusing radical Islam, says the indoctrination of vulnerable teens has increased through the use of social networks and the internet .
In her book , she explains how youth indoctrination linked to Islamism is a growing phenomenon in France
“I’ve been working on indoctrination techniques by radical Islamist for 10 years new,” she told RFI. “They used to affect only young and rather fragile people. Today they affect individuals from any social and family environment, people of any religion, atheists, agnostics, whether they practice their religion or not, poor, rich, privileged, educated … Anyone, really.”
Now, why is that?
About 700 French nationals are believed to have gone to fight in Syria.
Two teenagers were brought back to France from Turkey in January.
“French society and politicians have failed to differentiate sect-like indoctrination and brainwashing by radical Islamists and Islam as a religion,” comments Bouzar. “That has led to many errors in appreciation and interpretation which have only been to the religious radicals’ advantage.”…
Ain’t that the truth.