Norway: Anti-radicalism strategy modeled on anti-Nazi efforts
Norwegian Justice Minister Knut Storberget (Ap) is ready with a plan to prevent youth and marginalized people from being recruited by extreme, religious communities. The minister spoke in a debate on religious extremism. The plan includes 30 measures and is based on efforts against Nazi and extreme-right wing communities.
"We need to prevent extremism, and among the means we want to use are the same ones we used against Vigrid and other extreme right-wing communities," Storberget told the NTB news agency. He thinks both communities are ideologically not-nuanced and dogmatic, and rely on being seen publicly to get new members.
"Some of our experiences we got when working against right-wing extremism in southern and eastern Norway will also be useful against extremist religious groups."
The Justice Minister is careful to emphasize that the goal is to prevent recruiting and provide a so-called exit-strategy to people who are entering extremist, religious communities. "We already have a lot of tools for police and law enforcement. It's not where we want to direct measures at now. This is a pure prevention plan," he says.
Storberget highlights the increasing use of 'concern talks', which had good results after the violent demonstrations against Israel's war in the Gaza Strip at the beginning of the year. He also wants to use mediation and police council, which is available in all municipalities, and there will also be public meetings, as well as dialog meetings by the police.
Source: Dagbladet (Norwegian)
See also: Germany: Exit programme for Islamists
