Dear Editor,
In recent weeks, the U.S., the British government and the Calgary police have identified several men with the passports from the above countries who have been involved in the military style militias with the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS). Three of the men who lived in Calgary are reported to have been killed in conflict that has spread across the borders of Syria and Iraq. Recently, two reporters from the U.S have been killed by ISIS forces via the gruesome spectacle of beheading.
All the above countries, including Germany and likely other European and affected countries, have attempted to understand this phenomenon, which has been called radicalization where young men through influence from others or through internet or other contact, have strongly identified with the ISIS cause.
One of the major policy and strategic goals is to prevent such radicalization from taking place.
The German de-radicalization program called Hayat, which means "life" in Arabic and Turkish, had proposed that the minds of young Europeans intent on practicing jihad in Syria or Iraq cannot be changed by politicians' threats or the force of law, but only by their next of kin.
"Families are the closest social community most radicalised young Muslims have," said Daniel Köhler, one of Hayat's family counsellors. "It is the perfect living counter-narrative to radical Islam."
It is important to recognize that punitive and heavy-handed methods often do not work.
For more information see: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/27/crackdown-british-jihadis-youths-german-hayat-home-office.
George Jason