Security Police: radicalisation tendencies in Muslim communities become stronger every year

Radicalised individuals have been noticed in Latvia’s Islamic Culture Centre recently. Publicly, however, these individuals express peaceful beliefs, said Chief of Security Police Normunds Mezviets in an interview to Rīta Panorāma.

In general, according to Mezviets, Latvia’s society is tolerant in comparison with other European countries. Aside from certain individuals, there are no left-wing extremists in Latvia. There is some right-wing extremism, but only a little, as reported by lsm.lv.

Radicalisation tendencies have affected Latvia’s Muslim community; every year these tendencies become more and more powerful. Mezviets explains this with the growing number of Muslims, which carries with it an increase in radicalisation.

It has also been noticed that extremism mainly affects young people in Latvia – men and women alike. Security Police is aware of certain people who have expressed the desire to join terrorist organizations and even tried to travel to risk countries. However, attempts of those people have been thwarted by authorities.

There is also the possibility that certain representatives of the Islamic community that publicly express peaceful opinions are actually radicalised, said Mezviets. He did not say how many such people there are in Latvia.

There is information about the former head of the Islamic Culture Centre Oleg Petrov, who is currently in one of the Muslim countries, publicly praising terrorists. The chief of SP said Petrov has been under close monitoring ever since he converted to Islam.

Security specialists had anticipated Petrov may pose a threat to Latvia’s Muslim community. This is exactly what has happened.

Also, security specialists have noticed an increase in the number of extremist and radical comments on the Interned recently. Some of those comments are borderline criminal. This tendency has been noticed ever since the increase of the migrant flow in Europe.

BNN 

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