How do you deradicalise returning Isis fighters?

[Uncle88]

While other western countries are cracking down on jihadists who come back from Syria, Denmark is taking a very different approach – reintegration

Fifteen minutes west of the cobbled streets and chic boutiques of Aarhus old town in Denmark, on a bleak road of prefabricated warehouses and low-rise industrial units, is a former ice-cream factory that now houses the Grimhojvej mosque. In this squat, drab building, at prayers or in its Muslim youth group, 22 young men – regular high school and university students and first-jobbers – heard something last year that persuaded them to abandon their families, studies and careers to make jihad in Syria. Now, many are coming back, and Denmark's second city is giving them an unconventional welcome.

Most western countries, fearful of the threat they could pose, are cracking down on returning fighters. In France, tough new anti-terror legislation allows authorities to seize passports and ID cards from would-be jihadists "likely to jeopardise public security on their return". Britain has arrested at least 60 returnees; government talk has been of long jail terms, or trying to ban more from coming back at all. At least 30 returning jihadists are facing trial in Germany, which is mulling far stricter exit controls, while, in Antwerp, 46 people were recently accused of belonging to a Belgian group that allegedly recruited and sent fighters to Syria; the group's leader could face up to 15 years in prison.

The so-called Aarhus model, says Preben Bertelsen, a psychology professor at Aarhus University, is about "inclusion. Look: these are young people struggling with pretty much the same issues as any others – getting a grip on their lives, making sense of things, finding a meaningful place in society. We have to say: provided you have done nothing criminal, we will help you to find a way back."



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/12/deradicalise-isis-fighters-jihadists-denmark-syria