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Daesh Recruiting Criminals, Gang Members across Europe

Daesh Recruiting Criminals, Gang Members across Europe
folder_openEurope... access_time7 years ago
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Local Editor

"Sometimes people with the worst pasts create the best futures," reads the slogan, emblazoned on an image of a masked fighter wielding a Kalashnikov, walking into blinding light.

Daesh Recruiting Criminals, Gang Members across Europe

The poster was shared on Facebook by Rayat al-Tawheed, a group of British Daesh [ISIS/ISIL] fighters from London calling themselves the "Banner of God".

Their target is young men looking for redemption from crime, drugs or gangs, willing to save their souls by waging extremism for the so-called "Islamic State."

For all of its professed piousness, new research shows that the majority of the terrorist group's recruits have criminal histories - an unprecedented figure for former extremist movements.

A report by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization [ICSR] shows that criminal and terrorist networks across Europe are merging to create a dangerous brand of fighter for whom violence is not just a holy pursuit, but a way of life.

Professor Peter Neumann, director of the ICSR at King's College London, said the new "crime-terror nexus" was making radicalization harder to spot for European security services.

Neumann said many security services still expect radicalized young men to change their behavior and act "religiously", perhaps by growing a beard or changing their clothing.

For some the pattern is still seen, but in many cases it is not, with several European fighters in the ICSR's database continuing to smoke, drink and even take drugs up until their departure for Daesh.

Neumann said that of the terrorists examined for the study, two thirds had not just a criminal history but a violent history.

In European countries where the figure is known, more than half of Daesh fighters were previously known to the police.

Source: The Independent, Edited by website team

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