“It is essential to remove the water from the jihadist propaganda.” This is the reading that Elettra Santori gives the entrance of the IMAM in the Pinorile Beccaria prison of Milan. She, Jihadologist and scientific councilor of the Icsa Foundation (Intelligence Culture and Strategic Analysis), knows well the ways of radicalization and knows that in an institution of minors, alone, there is enough soil, Islamic fanaticism.
What role does the prison play in radicalization processes?
“Prison is one of the places par excellence of the ‘face to face’ radicalization, more than the mosques and places of prayer. The other priority route is that of online self -radicalization. Although now, given the time that is spent on the internet, between offline and online there is almost no more separation, there is a single onlife bubble in which the virtual phagocyte the real life. From the point of view of radicalization, this means that fragile subjects, especially minor species, who enter this bubble no longer distinguish the real from the virtual and find themselves committing crimes without even realizing what they are doing ».
Is the age of radicalization down?
«It is an obvious phenomenon. The news of minors arrested for activities with terrorism purposes are intensifying, which in turn can introduce jihadist contagion in the prisons of the outbreaks. There was therefore a need for a specific intervention for juvenile prisons, such as the one designed for Beccaria “.
The internal logic of prison – violence, rivalry between groups, blackmail – can they encourage radicalization processes?
«Of course, as well as overcrowding, which creates divisions between groups in competition with each other to divide the scarce available resources. These are all situations that induce the weakest prisoners to seek protection in the most charismatic subjects. And it is then that the most extremist individuals emerge and with leadership skills, including religious, who propose themselves as moral and spiritual guides for the most vulnerable ».
Can the personal fragility of prisoners increase radicalization risk?
«In prison, the prisoner meets an identity void that ultra-radicated subjects can take advantage of to convey jihadist fiction. This condition of personal fragility is all the more acute in minors inmates, in which the fragility of adolescence are added to the vulnerability of detention. “
How can an imam appointed with the endorsement of the authorities be accepted by Muslim prisoners?
«Those who are ultra-radicated, perhaps for a long time, and have experiences of terrorist activities behind them, could see in an imam of appointment
It publishes a non -credible figure, the representative of a corrupt and westernized Islam. The radicalized minors, however, were exposed for a lesser time to the jihadist verb, therefore they are tendentially more recoverable ».