Islamic State targeting Germany's young and vulnerable. Do you think this is happening here as well?

2015-06-20T16:24:01-04:00

Last month in Baiji, Iraq, a 23-year-old German who's being referred to as Yannick N. died in a suicide bomb attack for the Islamic State.

The story of a young German man willing to fight and die for the Islamic State has become disturbingly routine, but to experts and police, the tale of Yannick N. is especially shocking because of what the former Freiburg resident didn't possess.

He didn't have close family or friends, the most common way Islamic State fighters are recruited. He didn't have Internet access and wasn't known to have ever used social media sites believed critical to Islamic State recruiters. He didn't have a home mosque, or a background in Islam, which again would make him a lower-risk target. He was homeless.

Instead, Yannick N., who was learning disabled, appears to have been approached in person and to have been recruited in what amounted to a cold call by radical Islamists targeting a vulnerable person by offering to give him what they had and he wanted — protection, a future and a family.

A year after that initial approach, he drove a truck filled with 1.5 tons of explosives into an Iraqi military checkpoint.

The news in Europe is full of such stories of people vanishing from here who end up there. Last weekend, a Hamburg father killed himself after learning that his teenage daughter and her friend had sneaked away and into Syria. British news media this week were reporting that three British sisters and their nine children are feared to have slipped into Syria after making a pilgrimage to Mecca.

German experts on the radicalization of young people say Yannick N. fits a new trend in the Islamic State recruiting. For years now, Germany, like other European nations, has provided a steady flow of recruits to the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Most of those were young Muslims, many of them recent converts, who'd been radicalized by family, friends, imams or the Web.

The new strategy appears to target the homeless, those with disabilities and young, frustrated refugees. Experts believe that before, European recruits were often lured with the promise of taking part in a struggle that was bigger than their small, mundane lives. This new batch, however, is simply desperate for any kind of acceptance. As such, the fear is that they're more likely to be willing to accept their fate as suicide bombers than those who want glory, but also want to revel in it with friends online.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/islamic-state-targeting-germanys-young-and-vulnerable-in-worrying-recruiting-trend/ar-AAbNBsr

Islamic State targeting Germany's young and vulnerable in worrying recruiting trend

Last month in Baiji, Iraq, a 23-year-old German who's being referred to as Yannick N. died in a suicide bomb attack for the Islamic State. The story of a young German man willing...

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 20 at 2015 4:34 PM

2015-06-20T16:34:57-04:00

Seems gangs in our country have been doing this for years.

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 20 at 2015 4:39 PM

2015-06-20T16:39:58-04:00

Unfortunately.. I'm sure this is happening everywhere as we speak.

Response by TSgt Thomas Monaghan made Jun 20 at 2015 4:50 PM

2015-06-20T16:50:15-04:00

Absolutely I work in corrections many fed inmates already think the government is corrupt to start with. They could be easily swayed to join any anti government group Isis or whomever. This is a big fear as many of these guys will get out and want to make America pay for there perceived injustice.

Response by MSgt Manuel Diaz made Jun 20 at 2015 5:36 PM

2015-06-20T17:36:29-04:00

Seems it is, wasn't that long ago it was in the news that a couple of females went that route. Not suicide bombers, but fighters

Response by CSM Michael J. Uhlig made Jun 20 at 2015 5:55 PM

2015-06-20T17:55:58-04:00

Disgusting tactic to prey on the physically, mentally and/or emotionally challenged.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jun 20 at 2015 6:38 PM

2015-06-20T18:38:58-04:00

Yes they are recruiting here which is a strategic goal.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jun 20 at 2015 7:54 PM

2015-06-20T19:54:45-04:00

Clearly; a number have been caught already.

Response by SSG Roger Ayscue made Jun 20 at 2015 8:21 PM

2015-06-20T20:21:02-04:00

Yes. The current generation of game fueled, politically correct indoctrinated youth in this country who can not name the founding fathers, are vulnerable to charismatic individuals. That is why we need to destroy ISIS where they are before we fight them here

Response by LCpl David Arnett made Jun 20 at 2015 8:29 PM

2015-06-20T20:29:51-04:00

I heard of a guy watching ISIS propaganda while he was working at the USPS in Minnesota it scares me to know this is getting close

Response by COL Charles Williams made Jun 21 at 2015 12:52 AM

2015-06-21T00:52:32-04:00

Yes I do, but to a lesser extent. Europe is dealing with unprecedented immigration since the fall of the wall, and end of the east and the west. There issues, often make ours seem like much less of an issue.