Young men looking for redemption from crime, drugs or gangs by waging ‘jihad’ are the new targets for the ISIS terror group in Europe, a new report co-authored by an Indian-origin researcher said on Tuesday.
“In many European countries, the majority of jehadist foreign fighters are former criminals,” the report titled ‘Criminal Pasts, Terrorist Futures: European Jihadists and the New Crime-Terror Nexus’ said.
It has been co-authored by Indian-origin senior researcher Rajan Basra for the london-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) at King’s College london.
“The profiles and pathways in our database suggest that the jihadist narrative – as articulated by the Islamic State (ISIS) – is surprisingly well-aligned with the personal needs and desires of criminals, and that it can be used to condone as well as curtail the continued involvement in crime,” it adds.
The emergence of the ISIS has strengthened the link between crime and terrorism and the dreaded group is increasingly turning to “ghettos”, prisons and “underclasses” to recruit individuals with a history of criminal behaviour, according to the report which examined the profiles of European jihadists recruited since 2011.