de-radicalization programs remain unspent.
A father was extremely distraught by the fact that his son had quit working, grew a beard, and had been talking about world events and had a coloured view about what Muslims were subjected to, there had been a change in his son’s mentality and he wanted someone to engage with him.
He approached religious leaders to see if they would speak to the son, but the leaders were fearful of security agencies who might look on the fact that they were engaging with him as showing that they were agreeing with his views, rather than trying to dissuade him.
Parents fearful their children were being influenced by terrorist organisations had nowhere to go for help. The $13 m in federal government funding allocated in October to fund community-based de-radicalization programs remained unspent. Without such programs, opportunities to intervene and prevent vulnerable Australians from being influenced by extreme Islamist's are being missed.
The Muslim families fear becoming a target of authorities if they say they are concerned for a loved one, they feel powerless in how to deal with this.There should be a concerted effort by security services to connect with religious leaders and their communities to allay their fears.
Surely a fund such as for community-based de-radicalization program is crucial if we are to tackle this problem head on. These young people must be brought into society, because if we shun them we are doing nothing but creating potential recruits for extremists.
Let's see some action on the de-radicalisation front, all we hear from The Attorney General’s Department is, 'we will be developing a program'.
When will that be, this is urgent, we shouldn't be sitting on our handsIt sounds a bit like the captain of the Titanic saying "this boat cannot sink"
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