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Australia should adopt new approach to counter radicalization: report

Xinhua, June 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australia needs to take a new approach and avoid over-reaction to stop young people joining terrorist organizations, according to a strategic policy report released on Tuesday.

The report, by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), urged the government to better explain why it was militarily involved in the Middle East and use the Internet at least as effectively as Islamic State (IS).

It also called for better cohesion Islamic communities and for politicians to avoid unhelpful language such as "Team Australia."

The report, titled Gen Y Jihadists: Preventing Radicalisation in Australia, noted Australia's "long history of fighting wars in the Middle East" but a lack of "deep Middle East specialists" in Australian public administration.

The report called for the government to better explain the complex dimensions of Middle Eastern politics and why a far-away nation like Australia was involved.

"The strategic drivers of change in the Middle East are seldom publicly explained or related to the purpose of Australian military involvement," the report said. "A deeper knowledge of the region will produce more effective counterterrorism policies."

The report said communication needed to improve on the Internet, where IS has developed an army of ardent supporters through high- quality propaganda. It said the government, for "a number of years ", had developed thinking about online counter-radicalization.

"The need now is to deploy a range of responses able to rapidly change to meet new propaganda challenges and to find ways to build community acceptance," it said.

It noted that there are many separate Islamic communities with individual idiosyncrasies, recommending the government collaborate with all communities to produce a "coherent national response" to terrorism.

"Australia as a whole must find a way to work with Australian Muslims that's creative and respectful and doesn't blame the community for the behavior of a tiny group," it said.

The report also called for practical discussions on terrorism in schools, urgent expansion of counterterrorism cooperation with key international partners and individual case management for at- risk people. Endi