For two days, representatives from a total of 20 Nordic municipalities have been gathered in Malmö, Sweden to develop the best methods for municipalities to target violent extremism.
"It's all in the local environment and direct contact with school, leisure activities and sports; that's where young people are brought up and shaped," says Sweden's Nordic Minister Kristina Persson, as quoted by the Swedish Radio.
Recently, Sweden's national coordinator against violent extremism Mona Sahlin, who has been severely criticized for taking an extremely lenient policy on the ongoing radicalization of juveniles, voiced concern about the dissemination of extremism "on home turf." At present, Sweden has contributed the second highest number of Daesh terrorists per capita in Europe, second only to Belgium, which of late fell victim to a series of ferocious terrorist attacks.
"We have never baby-talked or hugged terrorists, instead we try to find and reveal them before they have gone too far and joined an extremist movement," she said in an apologetic interview with Expressen.
Sweden's police have recently established a clear link between people traveling abroad to join terrorist groups abroad and criminality, Swedish Radio reported.
According to Linda Staaf, head of the national police intelligence unit, people who are involved in international terrorist networks commit crimes in Sweden as well.
"It is mainly about drugs, violent crime, unlawful possessions of firearms, extortion as well financing of terrorism," she said.
