Denmark to target anti-radicalization at kids
The Local - [email protected]
Published: 6 Feb, 2015 CET.
Updated: Fri 6 Feb 2015 08:27 CET
Children as young as nine years old will be taught about extremism and radicalization under a local plan in Aarhus, while the government says a similar national plan is also on its way.
Denmark’s second-largest city Aarhus has announced new plans to combat potential radicalization in students as young as nine and ten years old. Aarhus is home to both a controversial mosque that has produced a high number of foreign fighters and an equally controversial jihadist rehabilitation programme that is being closely watched by other nations. Now the school curriculum for students in the fourth and fifth grades will include material meant to prevent radicalization before it can take hold. “The earlier the better. We are lucky enough that, unlike the radical environments, schools have a unique ability to affect children and young people,” Aarhus council member Bünyamin Simsek told Berlingske. The city plans to expand its radicalization and discrimination workshops, which have been taught in the ninth and tenth grades since 2012, down to the younger students to help them see through extremist propaganda. Although Aarhus will reach students as young as nine years old, the rest of the nation won’t be far behind. The government’s recently-passed anti-radicalization plan includes plans to institute a peer-to-peer strategy on radicalization that will begin in the sixth or seventh grade. According to the Social Ministry, two million kroner ($300,000) has been set aside for the project, which will formally be announced later this year.
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Denmark’s second-largest city Aarhus has announced new plans to combat potential radicalization in students as young as nine and ten years old.
Aarhus is home to both a controversial mosque that has produced a high number of foreign fighters and an equally controversial jihadist rehabilitation programme that is being closely watched by other nations.
Now the school curriculum for students in the fourth and fifth grades will include material meant to prevent radicalization before it can take hold.
“The earlier the better. We are lucky enough that, unlike the radical environments, schools have a unique ability to affect children and young people,” Aarhus council member Bünyamin Simsek told Berlingske.
The city plans to expand its radicalization and discrimination workshops, which have been taught in the ninth and tenth grades since 2012, down to the younger students to help them see through extremist propaganda.
Although Aarhus will reach students as young as nine years old, the rest of the nation won’t be far behind.
The government’s recently-passed anti-radicalization plan includes plans to institute a peer-to-peer strategy on radicalization that will begin in the sixth or seventh grade. According to the Social Ministry, two million kroner ($300,000) has been set aside for the project, which will formally be announced later this year.
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