Backslash on multiculturalism in Europe and easy access to global jihad info on the web prompts young Muslims from France and other EU states to join the Syrian rebels, Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist on extremism, told RT.
The EU's anti-terror chief, Gilles de Kerchove, is sounding the alarm over the number of young Europeans going off to the Syrian war.
Hundreds of volunteers are already fighting alongside rebels and could pose a serious security threat when they return home, according to the official.
Specialist in extremism at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, Jean-Yves Camus, shares those concerns, adding that the rise of radicalism in Europe can be also explained by the many conflicts in the Muslim world the West had a hand in.
RT: The French government has been one of the strongest supporters of the Syrian rebels and even wants to arm them directly. Is Paris not worried about the threat of homegrown terror?
Jean-Yves Camus: Paris is, of course, aware of the trend towards home grown terror and we had the Mohammed Merah shooting last year, which fairly proved that this wasn’t something unrealistic that a young radicalized Muslim may go out onto the street and shoot youngster in a Jewish school. On the other hand, the French government is also aware that the youngsters from the Muslim community are going to Syria as they used to go to Iraq or other places of the global jihad, in order to train alongside the Al-Qaeda fighters and other militant Muslim movements. So, they are aware of that and already our security services have arrested several of them – either before they travelled to Syria or even on the return. |