Why do young people go to war zones – especially if their parents brought them to the United States for a new start? To stop adolescents from being lured to places such as Syria, Iraq, or Somalia, we need answers to that question.
One answer we hear from Somali Americans is, “We are the generation that was supposed to fix Somalia.” They were not presented with good options for doing so in a peaceful way, however, and this has made it relatively easy for terrorist organizations to exploit their passion. In 2007 and 2008, at least 17 Somali American adolescent boys and young men living in Minneapolis–St. Paul secretly left their homes and flew to Somalia to join militant extremist training camps run by Al Shabaab (Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict 2009;2:181-200).
Dr Stevan Weine
To better understand why this happened and how it can be prevented, we conducted a research study of Somali Americans funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. We interviewed 57 people in Minneapolis–St. Paul who were either Somali American males aged 16-30 years, Somali American parents or adult family members, or service providers who worked within that community.
Multiple risks found
What we found is that no single risk factor explains violent radicalization. Instead, a combination of multiple risks at the individual, family, community, and societal levels are implicated.
To explain how to address these risks, we built a model called Diminishing Opportunities for Violent Extremism, or DOVE. This model shows that building community resilience to violent extremism depends on sustaining and strengthening (or in some cases initiating) protective resources through collaborations between family and youth, community, and government.