What attracts the young «Islamic state»?

May 27, a student of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov Varvara Karaulova went to the university, as usual. However, she did not return home that day and did not answer calls. According to the bearing of the phone, it was found in Turkey. How did she get there? According to Varvara’s father, lately she has been fond of Islamic culture and has been learning Arabic. However, as it turned out, the real extent of this hobby was unknown to anyone. The girl had been leading a double life for some time: she left the house in ordinary clothes, and at the university she changed into black long skirts and put on a hijab. On June 4, she was detained along with a group of other foreigners while trying to cross the border with Syria, and then deported to Russia. She has not yet been charged, she is a witness in the case.

Relatives believe that the girl could have been recruited by ISIS (“Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”), a terrorist Islamist organization that operates in Iraq and Syria. ISIS aims to create a state based on the principles of Sharia and uncompromisingly fight against everything that does not comply with these principles. The motives of Varvara Karaulova are not yet completely clear, but cases of Islamists recruiting prosperous young people from time to time become known, and this happens not only in Russia, but also in Europe. How to recognize the danger in time and what to do if the child has already fallen under the influence of recruiters, explain the founder of the Center for the Prevention of Sectarian Activities of Islamist Groups (France), religious scholar Dounia Bouzar and the Center’s consultant, psychotherapist Serge Efez.

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Psychologies: Why do young people choose the path of Islamic radicalism?

Serge Efez: Probably because recruiters offer them what they lack and what they aspire to: certainty. Growing up, each of us goes through a period of questions: “Who am I? Whom I want to become? What is important and valuable to me? These questions shape our identity. On the one hand, the search for answers leads to a revision of parental attitudes. On the other hand, they satisfy the teenager’s curiosity, his interest in those signals from the outside that correspond to his inner craving for finding wholeness. The virtual environment today can offer the teenager almost instant responses, behavior patterns, strong images with which he can identify. Islamist rhetoric is based on separating the pure from the impure, truth from hypocrisy, strength from weakness. Online communities of Islamists attract teenagers by opposing the surrounding uncertainty and complexity with simple solutions: for girls — high love, commitment to the family; for young men — war in the name of higher justice.

Each story develops in its own way, but the common feature in all cases is that the child has a different life — virtual, hidden, in which completely different norms prevail, different from those accepted in the family. And parents can learn about it at the very last turn. Even relatively well-to-do teenagers are fascinated by an idea that gives them a tempting opportunity to oppose themselves to their parents in everything. Only they do not realize that for this opportunity they risk paying with their lives. The process is developing rapidly: the Internet allows you to very quickly create a new identity for yourself, which seems to have nothing to do with the old one. Like clothes, teenagers believe, you can change your body, life, destiny to your liking. Like in a video game. Islamist militants have learned this process, its simple and low-cost essence, and do not hesitate to use European teenagers as fighting units. Long-term parental care, social inadequacy, early intellectual development, combined with emotional immaturity — all these are features that increase the likelihood of a child falling into a «risk group».

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How to recognize that a teenager has fallen under the influence of radicals?

There are four warning signs. The main symptom here is disconnection, not religiosity. The first sign: refusal to communicate with friends, relatives, partner. At this stage, parents often hear something like this from the child: “I no longer communicate with him (her), he (she) is not real, he (she) cannot understand me, I have nothing to do with to tell him (her) … ”The second phase of radicalization is the rejection of former forms of leisure, former hobbies. All victims of recruitment give up sports, music, painting. Fundamentalist rhetoric rejects these pursuits under various pretexts. The recruit is told that this may interfere with his great mission, or that these activities come from the devil and turn him away from the truth. In the third stage, there is a break with school and learning. It happens fast and hard. Recruiters announce that teachers are trying to put others to sleep with their speeches, that they are with the enemy, they have plotted to prevent others from using knowledge and power, they are trying to prevent the revolution.

Lastly, there comes a stage that must be avoided at all costs: a break with the family. Virtual brotherhood takes precedence over family ties. There is a feeling of alienation between children and parents. It seems to parents that their child is not the same as before, that he speaks like a robot, that he does not feel anything, that he has completely changed. At this point, teenagers are often required by recruiters to tear up family photos so that feelings do not confuse their minds. Experienced manipulators know that this stage is the most difficult. They try to make the teenager feel that he himself made the choice, playing on their guilt: “If your mother is dearer to you than the world, than God, you can not force yourself. Stay among the sleepers.»

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What can parents do to maintain the possibility of dialogue with a child who has been influenced by recruiters?

Do not try to «debate» with a child who is being manipulated, appeal to his mind or try to warn him of the consequences. If the parents speak to the child from a position of knowledge or power, they will only increase the rejection, since the recruiters are able to anticipate your reaction and interpret it in their favor. On the contrary, the task is to awaken in a teenager the little boy or girl who still lives inside them. This technique is called «Proustian Madeleine»¹, and it aims to get to the unconscious in the child, to his history, to call for help his memories, photographs, smells, gestures, memory of certain situations.

The teenager himself must realize the weak point of the radical path, independently distinguish truth from lies. This is where his release begins. At this stage, the help of a psychologist or psychoanalyst is especially important. When a teenager again gropes for solid ground in life, he finds himself in a “gray zone” — at risk of depression. He no longer knows who to believe and loses faith in himself. Feelings of disorientation can be severe, sometimes with signs of paranoia and schizophrenia. From this moment on, the child definitely needs the participation of psychologists who could say: “We are here with you, we can take care of you.” This is the most difficult moment, when the chance to break loose and turn back to addiction is especially great.

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¹ In Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, the hero, after biting off a piece of Madeleine biscuit, felt a sudden surging experience of joy associated with childhood memories with which he associates this taste.