英国青少年将伊斯兰国视为偶像
Hundreds of British teenagers see ISIS as 'pop idols' like One Direction and Justin Bieber, putting children in danger of being radicalised, the country's most senior Muslim prosecutor has said.
英国最年长的一名穆斯林检察官近日表示，成百上千的英国青少年把伊斯兰国视为“流行偶像”，将之与单向乐队和贾斯汀·比伯相提并论，这可能会让孩子们变得更加极端。
Nafir Afzal warned that 'another 7/7' could happen unless Britain makes sweeping changes to the way it tackles terrorism.
Mr Afzal, former head of the Crown Prosecution Service in the north-west, said children are 'manipulated' by Islamists and that Britain needs a new approach in the way it deals with radicalisation.
He told the Guardian's Nigel Bunyan: 'The boys want to be like them and the girls want to be with them. That's what they used to say about the Beatles and more recently One Direction and Justin Bieber. The propaganda the terrorists put out is akin to marketing, and too many of our teenagers are falling for the image.
'They see their own lives as poor by comparison, and don't realise they are being used. The extremists treat them in a similar way to sexual groomers – they manipulate them, distance them from their friends and families, and then take them.'
Mr Afzal added that a community-led approach to dealing with teenagers who have been corrupted by terrorists would be more successful than the 'stale' strategy used by the police and security services.
The prosecutor warned that unless the next government recruited young Muslim role models to help mentor those who are being radicalised, the country could face 'another 7/7' terror attack.
He believes that young people are far more likely to listen to people who have gone through their experiences than authority figures.
'At the moment, even the language is wrong. People talk about Isis as if they have some kind of religious basis or political dimension – a kind of glossy, glorious campaign,' he said.