France launches video campaign to deter would-be jihadis

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/france-jihadi-video-campaign-islamic-militants

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The French government has launched a shocking video campaign to try to dissuade would-be jihadis from going to war.

A film called #StopJihadism attempts to counter what officials believe are the most common arguments used by extremists to recruit French fighters and send them to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of Islamic fundamentalists.

It uses a series of comparisons between what would-be jihadis are told and what, it says, is the truth.

The video opens with grabs from websites, including social networks such as Facebook, that glorify the Islamist cause and encourage the like-minded to sign up for action.

It then sets about contradicting a series of statements, using brutal and harrowing images.

“They tell you: ‘Sacrifice yourself at our side, you will be defending a just cause …’ The reality: you will discover hell on earth and will die alone far from home,” argues the first of four scenarios accompanied by alternating photographs of flag-waving, gun-toting Islamic State (Isis) fighters and suffering children and dead bodies.

The two-minute video, released on Wednesday concludes: “Jihadi indoctrination has new victims every day.”

By Wednesday the video had been viewed more than 181,000 times.

The film is part of a €60m (£44.8m) government campaign – part of an overall €425m three-year anti-terrorism package – launched by France’s Socialist government in an attempt to prevent French nationals being radicalised.

It also addresses the problem of young women being lured to marry jihadi fighters.

One clip states: “They tell you, ‘Come and start a family with one of our heroes.’ The reality: you will bring up your children amid war and terror.”

The government’s anti-terror plan was launched after the series of terrorist attacks in France that left 20 people, including three gunmen, dead and started with an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine.

About 1,200 French citizens are believed to have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight with Isis forces, of whom an estimated 73 have been killed and around 126 have returned.