Turkish youths turning to Radical Islam
AMSTERDAM —
The continued radicalisation of especially young Muslims remains concerning, the national anti-terrorism co-ordination office NCTb said on Monday. The NCTb also said it was "remarkable" that a rising number of Turkish youths were finding their way into networks of radical Muslims prepared to use violence against western society.
Earlier, Dutch Turkish youths were appearing occasionally in "jihad networks" made up primarily of North Africans, but there now appears to be whole groups of youths susceptible to radical Islam.
"Frustration over the position of Muslims in the Netherlands and anger over the events in conflict regions give food to the feeling that 'something' must be done," the NCTb said in its quarterly report on the terrorism threat in the Netherlands.
Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin and Interior Minister Johan Remkes sent a summary of the report to the Dutch Parliament on Monday.
The NCTb report said the chance of a terrorist attack in the Netherlands is and remains reasonable, despite the fact that the threat appears to have declined in recent months.
There were no concrete threats issued by terror networks, very few radical Muslims were entering Europe from Iraq and there was little interest in the Netherlands from international terrorist networks.
The NCTb also said that resistance put forward by the Muslim community against radicalisation was still increasing.
However, there is still a considerable, unpredictable threat against other European nations, transatlantic allies and the West in general.
The NCTb said it remains concerned by polarisation in the community, stressing that this was not only due to the heightening influence of radical Muslims.
It said the extreme-right was also involved and that various incidents or inter-ethnic violence had been reported of late. Half of the violence involved Lonsdale youths, skinheads and the National Alliance.[Copyright Expatica News 2006]