Islamism: increasingly young people radicalized

Terrorism and intelligence specialists have been saying it for a long time: the problem of radicalized minors is the most complex of all. Recent years have seen a steady increase in young boys or girls, many of whom are college or high school students, identified for their adherence to radical Islamism or indicted in terrorist cases. The file of reports for the prevention of radicalization of a terrorist nature (FSPRT) counted 2200 minors in June (taking only reports from the prefectures, with the participation of national education officials, or the public, outside the "objectives" of specialized services), i.e. just over 16% of the total. In September 2016, the Minister of Justice announced that “the services of the judicial protection of youth (PJJ) followed 600 teenagers on whom we had signs of radicalization”. In a note dated February 10, 2017, the PJJ specified that it is “sometimes difficult to assess what is radicalization and what is adolescent risk behavior, as the border between the two is sometimes porous”. Whatever the figures, the trends are the same: constant progress and increased "feminization" (girls now represent a majority of minors on file with the FSPRT and half of the cases followed by the PJJ in civil matters or for criminal acts). 'conspiracy).

This last phenomenon is also observed, to a lesser degree, among minors prosecuted by the courts for acts related to terrorism. The presence of teenagers is nothing new in this area, a 14-year-old minor having, for example, been spotted in the channels of jihadists to Iraq in the 2000s. But, like the whole phenomenon, it has taken on an unprecedented scale. As of June 27, there were 58 minors indicted (including 25 detainees) and 9 others targeted by an arrest warrant. 24 were girls and 43 were boys. The girls were 12 in September 2016 (for 23 boys) and 16 in March 2017 (for 37 boys). That is a good third of the cases observed.

A terrorism expert observes that “these individuals, increasingly young, constitute aa prime target for Daesh recruiters. As Like Rachid Kassim, which “seduced” teenagers via the Internet by pushing them to take action”. Seduction can sometimes be rooted in everyday life, as evidenced by the dozen teachers suspended in recent years after reporting by the Ministry of the Interior (because they are on S or for their dangerousness). This was the case, in April, of an imam from Torcy who was also a mathematics teacher in a high school. Thirty other teachers are reportedly under surveillance. And the concern is still great about the shift of students into radical Islamism. President of the Center for Reflection on Homeland Security, Thibault de Montbrial explains that he has met, over the past eighteen months, “senior officials of the National Education very worried about a double trend: the significant progression of radicalization among students and its rejuvenation, with now several cases observed in sixth grade”.

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