The surrounding world’s reaction on the recruitments of IS

By Lisa Forsman

The number of people from the foreign countries joining the terrorist group IS increases continuously. The Swedish security police have confirmed that there are more than a hundred Swedes who have gone to Syria.

IS is the abbreviation for the Islamic state, and the group has earlier been named with other names like Isis for example.  It is a Sunni Muslim terrorist group that has invaded several cities in Syria and Iraq.  The number of members increases incessantly and during only a month last year there were about 6 000 people that joined the group. About 3 000 of them were counted to come from Europe.
According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, IS have around 30 000 people on their side so far, and the terrorist group have a big influence on other Muslims around the world.
IS claimed a stronger position during the civil war in Syria, and the group is known for having soldiers from foreign countries, among that Swedes and people from for example Norway and India that comes to fight.

The question is then, what makes people from other countries leave their homes to fight in Syria and Iraq? Many people around the world are Muslims, and according to interviews many of them believe it is their duty to go and help their people. Others are forced to join IS to protect their families. So there are different reasons why people join the terrorist group. Mostly it is young men who go to Syria, but also some women.

Countries react
The surrounding world’s reactions on the people that go and return from Syria are being notified. In Belgium jihadists that are believed to have returned from Syria and been connected to IS were killed recently.
According to another Swedish newspaper GP, there has been the implementation of a ban in Germany to do anything that supports the terrorist group.  

The Swedish security police’s possible measures
In Sweden, the security police are utmost worried about the stream of swedes who join terrorist groups like IS. For the moment, the instruments to prevent someone from traveling are few, and in September last year, members from FN gathered to create a resolution that will prevent people from joining terrorist groups like IS. For now, the only thing the Swedish security police can do is to talk to the people who plan on traveling, try to talk them out of it and keep them under supervision.
There has also been a discussion about introducing a ban for traveling to Syria and also to establish some sort of punishment for those who return to Sweden. This has not yet come to a conclusion.

According to SVT, there was a demonstration in Örebro, Sweden on February the 11th, with the message of “eject Isis out from Sweden”. The demonstration was apparently directed to how the municipalities deal with the problem.