RPT - Syrian Grand Mufti Says All Children of Foreign Islamist Fighters Must Be Repatriated

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2018) All children of foreign Islamist militants operating in Syria must be brought back to their homes and re-educated, Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, media reported that the French government was working on repatriation of some 150 children of suspected French Islamist militants in Syria, fearing that, if left in the Arab republic, they could eventually become militants.

"All the kids, those of terrorists or alleged terrorists, must return to their motherland. We must work on their re-education. There are countries like Turkey and Israel who want to have these kids to bring them up as terrorists. The religious parties consider it to be a good opportunity to make them just like other terrorists in the future.

That's what has been done in Syria ... We must work, so that religion is not implicated in some political games," Hassoun said on the sidelines of the fourth International Forum "Religion and the World" in Moscow.

Many European countries have been facing the challenge of handling with suspected Islamist fighters and their families as they are returning from conflict zones. While the militants are subject to prosecution, the government also has difficulties with integrating their families in the society, as such people are usually traumatized by their experience of living in a conflict zone.