Indonesian children (Photo: Peek Holidays)Hanoi (VNA) – Indonesia is reportedly facing agrowing threat of children being radicalised – either from exposure toextremist views online or from bad influence from adults.
The country’s Social Affairs Ministry recentlyreleased 161 people who had completed the government's rehabilitation andderadicalisation programme. Almost half of them were children.
The ministry's social rehabilitation directorNahar said the children had been exposed to extremist ideologies through theirparents, who were already linked to radical groups, particularly the IslamicState (IS) organisation in Iraq and Syria.
The National Police and the NationalCounter-terrorism Agency (BNPT) have been closely monitoring all people,including children, who have shown an interest in going to Syria.
The BNPT also recently signed an agreement withthe Indonesian Child Protection Commission on rehabilitating children who hadbeen exposed to radicalism.
More are expected to join the programme in thenear future, Nahar said.
[Indonesia police discover IS propaganda leaflets targeting children]
Last year’s survey, which involved 1,520respondents from across the country, revealed that 7.7 percent of IndonesianMuslims, about 11.5 million people, were prone to radicalism as they concededthey were willing to carry out extremist actions when needed.
The survey, conducted by the Wahid Institute incollaboration with the Indonesia Survey Agency, also found that young people weremore susceptible to being radicalised.
On June 26, a spokesperson of Indonesian policesaid they found hundreds of books containing IS propaganda targeting childrenat the home of a suspect arrested in connection with the stabbing death of anofficer. The arrested man spent six months in Syria in 2013.
There is concerned about a rise of militancy inIndonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population. IS sympathisershave carried out a series of mostly low-level attacks over the past few years,and there are fears about the return of hundreds of Indonesians who have goneto Syria to support the IS.-VNA
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