Chance to share ideas on dealing with radicals
Mayors’ security summit to discuss different approaches to de-radicalization
Wednesday the mayors of 30 odd cities around the world will converge on Montreal for what Mayor Denis Coderre has called the historic “Living together” summit — an upbeat title for a conference, largely held behind closed doors, on security and terrorism, racism and repression.
But the summit, held on the same day the Quebec government is to reveal its own action plan on de-radicalization, is intended to be a sharing exercise. They will look at what has worked and what hasn’t in efforts to stop — or at least contain — the threat of radicalization in the wake of terrorist attacks at home, and as more and more young men and women leave the comfort of their Western homes to join terrorist groups abroad.
Cities like Montreal are contending with the reality that some of those youths will never come home, and some of them will.
Four months after the White House’s own Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, the two-day conference is founded on one of the major premises that the U.S. has held since 2011 when it comes to countering the threat: that “communities provide the solution to violent extremism; and CVE efforts are best pursued at the local level, tailored to local dynamics.” Here are some of the experiences the summit will likely draw on:
PARIS
Mayor Anne Hidalgo is one of several mayors who will speak in Montreal, under the theme “Libres ensemble” or free together. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, which saw 16 people killed at the headquarters of the satirical newspaper and a Kosher supermarket two days later, an extra 2,000 policemen and 6,000 soldiers were deployed. They were set to protect Jewish denominational schools, synagogues and other places of worship, as well as neighbourhoods with substantial Jewish communities. At her speech in Washington in February, Hidalgo said the police also protected Muslim and Catholic places of worship, media headquarters and publishing houses, as well as French government buildings and tourist attractions.
But Paris also signed a “Pact against exclusion” to deal with the problem of homelessness among other things, after it was revealed that the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attacks had been homeless, and a new Parisian Contract for Security and Prevention, worth 360 million euros.
Since 2014, Paris also has a “green line”, a 1-800 number to signal “jihad”, which according to the latest official numbers reported by Le Monde has received calls from family members or public services across France for 3,142 people, nine per cent of whom have left for Syria. One quarter of all calls related to minors, 35 per cent to women, and 40 per cent to new Muslim converts.
BERLIN
In Berlin, as in much of Northern Europe, violence can emanate from extreme right-wing, neoNazi groups as well as Salafist Islamist factions. To deal with the first, Germany created the EXIT strategy, out of which grew Hayat — meaning “life” in Turkish and Arabic — to counter the thinking of Islamist radicalization.
Based on the premise that strangers, let alone police, are not always the best placed to deal with radicalized youths, Hayat counsels and supports mostly family members, but also teachers, employers, or anyone else who has a relationship with a person potentially on the path of a (violent) radicalization, urg- ing them to maintain a dialogue and emotional connections with them, while keeping authorities informed. This, whether the person is still in Germany or has joined militants abroad.
Hayat, funded by the Federal Office for Immigration and Refugee Affairs, is centred on a 24/7 confidential phone line, with counsellors available who can speak German, Turkish, Arabic or English. The organization, founded in 2011, had had 83 cases by 2014, most of which were still active. In a first phase, Hayat acts as a bridge between the family and relevant institutions — police, social services, etc. — and works with families first in an emergency situation, desperately trying to keep the radicalized person in the country, or stop them from fighting and bring them home. Families are urged not to react to provocation — to be curious and caring but not to challenge their relative’s beliefs or get into a debate over theological concepts.
The second phase is about building trust and starting to express alternative ideas.
Of the 83 cases, about 30 showed “clear de-radicalization” Hayat counsellor Daniel Koehler, who is also the Director of the German Institute on Radicaliza- tion and De-radicalization Studies, told The Associated Press last year, and 18 were considered serious security risks, either because they planned to travel or had been to Syria, or because they were suspected of planning domestic terrorism.
According to Jocelyn Bélanger, a professor of psychology at UQAM who is on the Montreal de-radicalization centre’s implementation committee, the German experience inspired the new Montreal centre. Pilot projects based on the Hayat model are being set up in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Australia. Here, Christianne Boudreau, the mother of Damian Clermont who died in Syria in January, 2014, is heading the Hayat Canada Family Support organization, which is currently seeking funding for a 24-hour hotline of its own, as well as for education and training resources.
LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles is one of three cities in the United States along with Boston and Minneapolis to be chosen last September for pilot projects on CVE — countering violent extremism — a federally-- encouraged but locally implemented program to involve the whole community, “including local government, law enforcement, mayor’s offices, the private sector, local service providers, academia, and any others who can help prevent violent extremism,” according to a statement issued by the White House during its Summit in February.
In all three cities, the projects are said to come out of previously existing efforts, attuned to local circumstances. In Minneapolis, for example, community groups and social services were enlisted in efforts to deal with Somalis being recruited to join al-Shabab between 2006 and 2008.
Several young men were recruited to fight overseas, and some 20 people were ultimately charged with terrorism-related offences for their role in the recruitment process.
In Los Angeles, the project stems from earlier collaboration between the Los Angeles Police Department and faith and community-based organizations. The resulting “framework for CVE” published in February, is designed to “mitigate the risk presented by violent extremist groups while preserving individ- ual liberty, fairness, and equality under the law.”
The Framework sets out a special role for Los Angeles’s Human Relations Commission, which as a neutral entity, provides a space to convene diverse communities and connect needed resources. “During times of heightened tensions, City HRC plays a vital role in mitigating community conflicts and creating new platforms to engage diverse perspectives on challenging issues.”
The framework sets out a three-pronged approach: prevention, intervention and interdiction (disrupting criminal activities.)
But in all three cities, news reports have also suggested a lot of skepticism and distrust on the part of the Muslim community especially, that CVE is simply using community leaders for intelligence gathering and surveillance. In Minnesota, 50 Muslim groups signed a petition last month stating “It is our recommendation that the government stop investing in programs that will only stigmatize, divide and marginalize our communities further.”