Brussels program turns youth away from radicalism

(Vatican Radio) Pressure keeps mounting for Belgium to crack down on Muslim extremists after three of the men involved in the Paris terrorist attacks last month came from a suburb near Brussels. With nearly 500 Belgians fighting with extremist groups in Iraq and Syria, Belgium is being called the radical hotspot of Europe. One program near Brussels is trying to prevent young Belgians from turning to radicalism.

Listen to Kevin Ozebek's report:

Many Muslims in Belgium say they now feel like outcasts: "When you step on the bus people look at you like maybe you’re going to do something when you open your bag to drink something. The eyes are really watching you and making you really small," said 24-year-old Anouar Abdellati, who is one of the roughly 50 young adults who’ve enrolled themselves in a program at the Belgian non-profit Arktos.

At the Arktos location in Leuven just east of Brussels, Abdellati and a dozen of his friends talk, laugh and are allowed to express their frustrations of feeling left out of Belgian society. 

Dirk De Rigdt is the program coordinator. He said, "We want them to feel connected with society and we think that’s basically the most important thing that everybody needs."

De Rigdt believes hundreds of Belgians have fled to fight in Syria because they come from isolated communities ignored by politicians and the greater population.

De Rigdt says that’s the problem with Molenbeek, a Brussels neighborhood with a Muslim majority that suffers from the highest unemployment in all of Belgium. It was also home to at least three men suspected to be behind last month’s terror attacks in Paris.

De Right says at Arktos, the mission is to give those disadvantaged from all different backgrounds and religions a sense of belonging.

"We try to make them stronger, that’s what we try to do," he said, "Stronger in a way that they broaden their minds, that they can see there are more options than one."

The aim of Arktos is to provide more than just a safe place for young adults to share their emotions. Arktos teaches them a variety of skills like how to fix bicycles and work with heavy machinery.

The aim is to ingrain in them they down have to turn to crime and radical philosphies, but rather they all have the power to be productive members of Belgium society.

Addellati says the program works.  When asked, "Do you feel a sense of empowerment, of self worth after attending the sessions here?" He responded, "Yes, I feel I start believing myself, that I can do something.  That I’m not nothing."

So instead of despair and turning to extreme views, he has hope a good career in Belgium is in his future.