ISIS Returnees Face Sentencing in Germany

Female returnees who once swore allegiance to ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) recently made the headlines in Germany. A first one, who was not identified by name or given an alias in the media, was sentenced in mid-July 2021 to three years and four months of imprisonment. The now 31-year-old woman traveled from…

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ISIS runaway Shamima Begum’s request to return to the UK provokes national uproar

  Fierce national debate has erupted this past week in the United Kingdom on the case of Shamima Begum, a 19-year-old woman who ran away from her home in East London in February 2015 to join the Islamic State, and is now requesting to return to the UK. The controversy reached new heights this Tuesday,…

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“He was there with his heart and soul”: The mother of a German ‘foreign fighter’ speaks

In 2014 and 2015, European publics were kept in suspense by daily press reports on the rising numbers of European citizens travelling to Syria in order to join jihadi groups (and, to a lesser extent, Kurdish rebel forces). By early 2018, security agencies estimated that 960 men and women had made their way to Syria…

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Social and economic marginalisation in European cities is a key factor in radicalisation, sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar warns

In his recent article, the sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar writes that a significant factor in jihadist radicalisation in Europe is the “jihadogenous urban structure”, a type of city district which produces jihadists at a much higher rate than other districts by shaping “the identity of those who are socially excluded and culturally stigmatised”.

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2,000 women and children held in Syrian detention camps for links to ISIS represent another challenge for European governments

More than 2,000 foreign women and children are being held in detention camps in Syria after moving with their husbands to join ISIS. After their husbands are captured or killed, many of their families also find themselves captured and stuck in limbo as their home countries ignore pleas to repatriate them.

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