LONDON (AP) – Prime Minister David Cameron sought Monday to dissuade young Muslims from joining the Islamic State group, saying they would only become “cannon fodder.”
Cameron announced new powers designed to put those who radicalize young people “out of action,” together with plans to allow parents to cancel their children’s passports to prevent them from traveling abroad to join a radical group. The measures are meant to crush the infrastructure that has made it possible for as many as 700 young Britons to join radicals abroad, he said.
In a wide-ranging speech that targeted the ideology of extremism, Cameron chose a school Birmingham, a center of the Muslim community in Britain, to argue that it was time to counter the narrative that has attracted so many young people to the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL. Britain must “de-glamourize” such groups by making the young aware of the stark reality of life under their control, he said.
“You won’t be some valued member of a movement. You are cannon fodder for them. They will use you,” he said. “If you are a boy, they will brainwash you, strap bombs to your body and blow you up. If you are a girl, they will enslave and abuse you. That is the sick and brutal reality of ISIL.”
Cameron also announced a study designed to find ways to increase opportunities for young people from ethnic minorities and increase their integration in society. He said a strategy would be published later in the year as part of a five-year-plan to wage what he defined as the struggle of a generation.