Ten summers ago, amid fears that a new ban on religious headwear would ensure a tense start to the school year in France, some Muslim girls vowed to comply. At the time, Islamists had kidnapped two French journalists following the US-led invasion of Iraq, and made withdrawal of the law a condition of sparing their lives.
Those schoolgirls resented the ban but had no wish to be associated with a grotesque threat to kill fellow French citizens. It is debatable how widespread their noble attitude actually was, but the prohibition of all religious symbols was implemented with much less resistance than predicted. Happily, the journalists were eventually freed, but the France of today is arguably more polarised, to the point that some Muslim students are now more willing to embrace violent causes overseas.
The number of teenagers volunteering to serve as jihadists in Iraq and Syria is disturbing. Scarcely a week passes without news, from across Europe, of young people abandoning relatively comfortable lives to join extremists in far-off conflicts.
Received wisdom has it that recruiters typically target dim tearaways, radicalised in jail or itching to escape blighted lives with no jobs and little hope. This assumption looks increasingly suspect.
Last week, British media chronicled the case of Salma and Zahra Halane, 16-year-old twins of Somali origin, who have followed their brother from Manchester to Syria, where he is fighting with the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL). Both girls had shown outstanding academic promise and were expected to train as doctors.
Their willingness to put aside bright futures and pursue jihad is worrying enough. Their chosen allegiance seems beyond belief.
One flippant Twitter response to The National’s special report on the issue compared youthful pursuit of jihad to the familiar year out students take between school and university: “Rich kids climb the Himalayans on a gap yah, same thing ...”
The obvious difference is that gap-year backpackers do not risk death on a foreign battlefield or prosecution as terrorists in their home countries.
Among the factors driving recruitment by jihadist groups is the classic identity crisis experienced by many western Muslims.
People, say, born in France of Maghrebi parents have long complained of feeling neither French nor fully Algerian, Moroccan or Tunisian. In the tragic events of the Middle East, some detect a powerful new raison d’être.
Those concerned with community relations ignore at their peril the role of France and its neighbours in fostering these feelings of uncertainty, and therefore their responsibility to resolve them. The offspring of Muslim immigrants are incensed by the discrimination and hatred they routinely encounter. Thus, the young Maghrebis often feel no attachment to France. Likewise, Pakistanis or Somalis in London or Birmingham may see little reason for loyalty to Britain.
Is it already too late for solutions?
A concerted campaign by western governments to introduce measures greatly favouring equality and attacking racism would help, but seems incompatible with an age of rising far-right sentiment.
Another idea is hopelessly old-fashioned, but arguably compelling: a return to national service, similar to the scheme just introduced in the UAE, forcing young people of all backgrounds to work together with a common objective. Such an idea finds support from educated individuals I meet in everyday life in France. To them, the ensuing camaraderie would be worth its weight in gold.
Such a proposition may, all the same, smack of tinkering with a more deep-rooted problem.
At least two of the experts quoted by The National earlier this week have spoken of the paradox of young people being criminalised when lured by a cause, in the case of Syria, that is essentially the same whether fought by extremist groups or western-endorsed rebel forces. It would be a wonder if some young minds were not confused.
There may be a more fundamental approach France, Britain and other western nations would be wise to adopt while voicing alarm at the steady defection of young people to what they class as terrorist movements. Perhaps they ought to consider how to counter the extremists’ appeal by adding effective action to empty rhetoric.
Colin Randall is a former executive editor of The National