Bid to fight ‘recruiters’
Molenbeek struggles
BRUSSELS, April 2, (Agencies): In Molenbeek, the rundown Brussels neighbourhood with the unenviable reputation as a haven for jihadists, residents are struggling to confront the threat of radicalism as recruiters increasingly go underground to prey on the area’s youngsters.
Molenbeek catapulted to global attention after it emerged the district had been home to several of the Islamic State attackers who took part in last November’s Paris terror assaults, which killed 130 people.
The unflattering spotlight fuelled criticism that Belgian authorities had closed their eyes to the problems gripping the impoverished, immigrant-heavy area, leaving its discontented youth vulnerable to jihadist recruiters.
Efforts to recruit were brazen until about two years ago, with long-bearded extremists openly calling for jihad in the streets or outside mosques, until the authorities cracked down and made some high-profile arrests.
Since then recruiters have switched tactics, approaching youngsters more discreetly and taking their messages online.
Supplier
Belgium, with a population of 11 million, is per capita Europe’s big-gest supplier of foreign jihadists to Syria, with more than 500 citizens leaving since 2011.
Sometimes the recruiters stand on street corners hoping to engage Molenbeek residents in conversations in which they try to tap into frustrations about lack of opportunities or perceived injustices, locals say.
Sofian, 18, who is looking for work as a security guard, said he himself has never been targeted by recruiters but several of his friends have been approached on the street, in parks and in the apartment hallways where groups of youngsters sometimes hang out.
“At first, you think ‘oh these guys are just like us and could be cool’, but then you realise they have pretty extreme ideas,” he told AFP. “They say: come with us to Syria, your life here is bad,” he said.
“And online it’s the same thing, they’re not hiding, with pictures on Facebook or messages or the videos they share.”
Olivier Vanderhaeghen, a social worker tasked with preventing radicalisation in Molenbeek, says the local demographic facilitates recruitment.
“There is a sizeable ARABMUSLIM community experiencing any number of difficulties,” with 40 percent of Molenbeek residents under 25 unemployed, allowing recruiters to “play a little on the youth’s sense of hopelessness,” says Vanderhaeghen.
When undercover police “come here to try to track (potential trouble-makers) they themselves are spotted in 30 minutes” by residents.
“It’s very difficult to shadow them — and the recruiters know it.”
But Vanderhaeghen says radicals are finding it “increasingly hard to recruit” in an area whose reputation now goes before it.
Sarah Turine, deputy mayor for Molenbeek with responsibility for youth affairs, said however that “a more underground, hidden, form of recruitment” has emerged.
Turine points out that various attackers behind the Paris and last week’s Brussels attacks had never actually travelled to Syria. What they do have in common is a long list of convictions for minor crime and time spent behind bars.
Such was the case of brothers Brahim and Salah Abdeslam, both from Molenbeek.
Also:
LONDON: Non-EU migrants wishing to live in Belgium will have to sign a statement declaring their acceptance of local values or see their residency claim rejected, a government official said, in a move campaigners fear will fuel antiimmigrant sentiment.
Parliament is expected to pass the proposal to introduce a “newcomers statement” in the next few months, according to a spokesman for Belgium’s secretary of state for asylum and migration, Theo Francken, who drafted the plan.
People moving to Belgium for more than three months would have to sign the statement which includes a pledge to prevent and report any attempts to commit “acts of terrorism”.
The statement would not apply to asylum seekers and students, the spokesman said.