Schooling into terror

the BBC has a long article on ISIS schools that teach teenagers to become terrorists, and some are being infiltrated into Europe.

A horrible story. read the whole thing.

this is not the only time this has happened: Hitler youths  and communists have long instilled youth with hatred. And the constant propaganda by Palestinian leaders to train their children in hatred is a story rarely covered in the news.

So what do you do?

Comparisons have been made to the ruins of earlier wars - Dresden, Stalingrad, etc. That is overstating the damage, and looking through the rubble, it misses the point. Physical damage is the easiest to perceive, but also the easiest to repair. Cities get rebuilt.
In its short life, the so-called Islamic State did a more lasting harm, by grooming and corrupting young men. Sit with those boys, hear their tales and you will struggle to steady yourself.
Identifying the worst affected is difficult enough. Treating them, stopping the nightmares and repairing the trauma will be costly and time-consuming. They have missed so much proper schooling that finding them jobs will be hard. And returning them to their faith, one that isn’t polluted by jihadist ideology, needs perseverance.

That might be enough to save them, to bring them back into their societies, to help Iraq and Syria rebuild. Treating those who have suffered and escaped to the West might stop them becoming criminals, or worse.

my friend in Zimbabwe, a local teacher, helped to reeduccate their insurgents after Mugabe took over.

She said one problem was to teach them that they did not have the right to steal (or worse) just because they had a gun... they had to be reintegrated into society and family, and given job training.

As for Islam: my son in law worked with the US trying to retrain the insurgency in Iraq: part of it was to teach them what the Koran actually said, and how ordinary people actually live as good Muslims, as opposed to concentrating on the rabid quotes out of context that inspire the radical Islamicists, who have more in common with the Nazis and leftists of the west than with their own history...