‘Here are the holy warriors from Denmark’, proclaimed the Danish daily newspaper Berlingske in September 2014, publishing photographs of 11 Danish Islamists it claimed had travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight jihad. S O U R C E : W W W. B . D K / Engaging with jihadists The Danish city of Aarhus pioneers a new program to counter the rise of home-grown terrorists by getting to potential fighters before they leave Denmark—and supporting those who return. Today Denmark is well into a pioneering—and courageous—experiment in which police, educational and state welfare services have joined forces to build a holistic “exit” program for radicalized youth. A vast intelligence network of police, families, social workers, religious leaders, community and parents has been created and what is known as “InfoHouse” has become the state’s first port of call to guide and target welfare resources and specialist attention to potential fighters before they leave Denmark—as well as those who return. To date, no prospective or returning fighter has ended up in jail. GLOBALLY, SECURITY AGENCIES ESTIMATE that a quarter of the 12,000 foreign fighters who have entered Syria since the civil war began in 2011 travelled from the west. Of these, 1000 came from France, 500 from the UK and Germany respectively, 250 from Belgium and an estimated 100 from Denmark. A further 70 travelled from Australia. After the shock of the 2005 London bombings, and the realization that terrorists were being grown at home, Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, intervened and actively countered radicalization to prevent home-grown terrorism occurring there. Efforts were ramped up when the Syrian crisis erupted. 7 from a different angle, to have a more … nuanced understanding. A broader horizon.” Steffen Nielsen, a crime prevention advisor in Aarhus, told Al Jazeera that the support had to be more than cursory to be effective, and include help to return to education or finding a job. “A lot of guys who come home have experienced a loss of innocence and some sort of loss of moral belief. They thought they were going down there for a good cause. And what they found was thugs who are decapitating women and children and raping and killing people.” The program has its critics, but senior police officers have backed its success, and the Danish government has just committed US$9 million to extend the program for three years, mostly to prevent Muslim youth being radicalized, with US$1 million to be spent on returning fighters. The Danish approach is in contrast to that taken by other countries, including Australia. In the UK and Germany in particular, there is a schism between those who support more benign, preventative approaches to counter youth radicalization and those who advocate a hardline law-and-order–driven response. UK law already empowers authorities to revoke the citizenship of a dual national, and British suspects can be held for up to fourteen days without charge. Terror training at home and abroad carries a ten-year jail sentence, and a raft of new laws are in the pipeline. The exact nature of these laws will depend on the results of the 7 May UK general election. Similarly, Germany has criminalized support for Islamic State and around 300 people are already facing prosecution. Measured by proportion of population, Australia is facing similar problems to Denmark. ASIO says 70 Australians are known to have entered Iraq or Syria to fight, and 20 have died in conflict. Another 100 are suspected of providing material support by making donations or recruiting fighters. Australia has also adopted a hard line, boosting the powers of security agencies, strengthening border security and, under legislation passed last November, cancelling benefits, including welfare payments for returnees or other terrorists. Of the 31 young men who went to Syria from Aarhus, five have died, ten remain overseas and sixteen have returned. Unlike some British families who have spoken out about the treatment of their sons, the identities of the Danish fighters remain a secret but authorities say the vast majority are Somalian; the others are Turks, Palestinians and an Iraqi. All who returned are known and their movements are tracked. Six have insisted they don’t need help and simply made a bad decision. Their files have been handed to intelligence services, who keep an eye on their activities while they try to reclaim their lives. The remaining ten have accepted assistance and cooperate with the program, which involves one-onone mentoring. Their experiences vary: some were horrified by what they saw in Syria but others are considering returning. Although an excitable right-wing press has simplistically dubbed the program “jihadi rehab”, the Aarhus “exit” program is in fact driven by the message to disaffected and alienated youth that their community wants to re-embrace rather than shun them, to prevent rather than punish. AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL, social workers, local mosques and families work together to identify vulnerable youth and offer counter messages to religious extremism. Treatment—both psychological for mental trauma and medical for physical injuries— on return is provided, along with long-term mentors, and all efforts are made to help reinsert youth into the community, to help them find paid jobs or a return to school and education. One mentor who spoke to the Guardian revealed the depth of radicalization on impressionable young minds. His latest young charge is obsessed with travelling and fighting to the exclusion of everything else. “Michael” meets the boy at least twice and week and involves himself with his life and schoolwork for several hours, often confronting the issue by engaging the youth in religious and moral debate. “The goal is not to persuade them to give up their religious conviction,” he said, “but to help them balance that religious perspective with school, work, family—with life, in fact. To be able to see questions 8 The CIA and studies by ISCR and the Soufan Group put the number of foreign fighters helping overthrow President Bashar al-Assad’s regime at a much higher 15,000 from at least 80 nations. S O U R C E : WA S H I N G T O N P O S T who head off idealistically as relief workers, only to encounter horror and brutality on the ground. Services include advice and guidance on stays in Syria, networking groups for relatives and help within the hospital system. “With our effort, we wish to offer these people a chance of rehabilitation and return to an ordinary Danish everyday life characterized by security for themselves and the people who surround them,” he It’s different in Denmark. It may not be a politically palatable message to some, but the Danes recognize that young fighters often return plagued by the same horrors and trauma suffered by military veterans. They believe that helping to restore mental health is the greatest guarantee against the potential for violence on home soil. Aarhus Mayor Jacob Bundsgaard says that help is offered to both combatants and young people 9 it began before the growth of Islamic State and is still experimental, shaped by trial and error. However they also warn that while the brutality and gross violence of ISIS has helped workers counter extremist messages with youth in the west, it has also fuelled domestic demand for more British-style hardline legislation. Toke Agerschou, Section Chief of the Aarhus program, says the goal of the work is not just to prevent radicalization but also to tackle “discrimination and unequal treatment because it is this too that can lead to criminal acts and risky behaviour”. “But we make a sharp distinction between attitudes and actions,” he said. “All attitudes must be dissected and debated. This is the lifeblood of a democracy.” told ASR. Bundsgaard said the starting point for the program lies with the Danish democratic tradition for openness and dialogue. “We wish to create a safe and good city for all by working long-term and intensively with crime prevention, while at the same time clamping down on offences and tendencies toward harassment, racism and discrimination.” The focus of the city’s problems has been a mosque in the rubble-strewn streets of a poor neighbourhood. Some of the imams of the Grimhoj Mosque have previously refused to denounce acts of terror and one could soon be jailed, although mosque leaders are now moderating their position. Such has been the problem that a fifteen-year-old boy was recently removed from his family because of fears he was being radicalized by his father, who attended the mosque. Researchers and experts on radicalization in Europe agree that the Danish approach is significant, even if Paola Totaro See Happiness is a sad Dane, page 81. SHARE Damned Whores and God’s Police The classic work about women in Australia by Anne Summers This new edition contains: The entire 1975 original edition The infamous “Letter to the Next Generation” from the 1994 edition The Timeline of Women’s Achievements from the 2002 edition A fabulous new cover featuring an original painting by acclaimed artist Gria Shead Out of print since 2008 - now available as an ebook at www.annesummers.com.au ePub and mobi $9.95 10