Hundreds of Europeans have joined rebel forces in Syria to fight
against Bashar Assad, according to the most comprehensive study on the
issue to date, and while their motivations vary from thrill-seeking to
religious conviction, the European Union's counter-terrorism chief warns
some of them could return home as dangerous Islamic radicals.
The
EU's Gilles de Kerchove told the BBC there were at least 500 Europeans
taking part in Syria's civil war, and it was "likely many of them will
be radicalized" fighting alongside some of the known Muslim extremist
militias in the country, and that the returning EU nationals would
pose, "a serious threat" to security in European nations.
Peter
Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of
Radicalization (ICSR) at London's King's College, says he believes the
number of fighters from countries including the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Sweden, Belgium( and the Netherlands) to be "at least in the
mid-hundreds to high-hundreds."
Note EU-Digest: the
EU organization Eurojust based in the Hague and the Dutch organization
"Muslims and Government" (CMO) are concerned about the fact that in the
past few months more young Dutch Muslims have left to join the fight in
Syria with radical Muslim fighters, including the Jabath al-Nusra
terrorist group, than in the whole past year. The major concern is that
when these radicalized fighters return to their home countries in Europe
they could become a danger to society.
EU-Digest
