Mosques in Norway (Moské i Norge) says that youth from North Caucasus are vulnerable to radicalisation

Oslo.Bomb alarm in Grønland.Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB scanpix

The 17-year-old who was indicted on terrorist charges in Oslo came from the North Caucasus. Young people from this area are very vulnerable to radicalisation, said a mosque leader.

Several of those who have traveled from Norway to fight in Syria, have a background from the same region, wrote VG newspaper.

‘I find that there is a huge danger of radicalisation of our youth’, said Aslan Shamsaev to the newspaper.

He is the leader and patron of the Chechen Islamic Cultural Center, which has two mosques in Oslo and Sandvika. Most of the approximately 1,100 members are Chechens.

‘Young people from this area have seen war and injustice from the Russian side, and it makes it easier to draw them in. It is easy to use religion, and relate it to the North Caucasus situation, and say that the same circumstances are now unfolding in Syria.
Young people are easily deceived’, said Shamsaev.

He tells of people who come and ask about things they have seen on the net that may be intended to radicalise them.

‘They wonder if there is something in religion that requires them to follow the message they are receiving from the internet. Then we answer that it is illegal, and that the message does not correspond to Islam’, he said.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today