American families are under assault from an Islamic extremist group that is quietly turning young minds against their parents, against their religious faith, and against their country.
The group, the self-proclaimed Islamic State in occupied sections of Syria and Iraq, is using social media and the worldwide reach of the Internet in a sophisticated recruitment campaign that is making families feel helpless to stop a slow-motion kidnapping of their children.
So far this year, 58 Americans ”“ more than half under 25 ”“ have been arrested for attempting to travel to Syria or for plotting violence in the US. That is more than twice the number of similar arrests for the entire year in 2014, and more than twice the number for all of 2013, as well.
[blockquote]“If you are seeing young, upwardly mobile Western citizens who are choosing to join a terrorist organization many miles away from home versus whatever options they feel they have at home – you are losing the battle of ideas,†says Erin Saltman, a radicalism expert at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London.[/blockquote]
Ha! “Young, upwardly mobile Western citizens,” kids who live their lives in an increasingly empty, secular world where the chief activity is earning a wage and then using it to buy junk. No wonder the West is losing the battle of ideas.
[blockquote]In short, they become the recruit’s new best friend, someone who likes them, respects them, and understands them. This grooming takes place during frequent discussions of shared grievances. There is plenty to talk about with ongoing atrocities against Muslim men, women, and children, objections to US intervention in the Mideast, and widespread discrimination against Muslims in the West.[/blockquote]
Notice how stories like this never come out and say if these kids are in fact Muslims, whether because their parents are or because they converted. Only when the story gets to the part describing how these kids are recruited by ISIS is the fact they identify as Muslim brought up, and even then it’s not made plain, it’s just assumed the reader will make the connection judging by topics the recruiters are bringing up.