ISIL ‘predators’ trying to take Molenbeek’s youth ‘by storm’

Special to WorldTribune.com

Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), having launched a major terror attack in Brussels last week, is going all out to recruit youth in the city’s jihadist hotbed of Molenbeek.

Belgian police carry out anti-terror raids in the Molenbeek district. /AFP/Getty Images
Belgian police carry out anti-terror raids in the Molenbeek district. /AFP/Getty Images

ISIL recruiters have been sending massive numbers of text messages to young men in Molenbeek, asking them to “fight the Westerners” amid heightened tensions in Brussels.

The text messages, sent from an untraceable prepaid phone number, urge the young men to “make the right choice in your life” by taking up jihad.

Jamal Ikazban, a member of parliament from Molenbeek, said “these people are trying to take our youth by storm. It is like having a big time drug dealer outside the school gates.

“They are predators and our youths are the victims.”

The full text message, written in French, said: “My brother, why not fight the Westerners? Make the right choice in your life,” the UK’s Guardian reported.

Belgian officials on March 28 said the death toll from the March 22 ISIL bombings had climbed to 35 after four people died in the hospital. Some 340 were also injured in the attacks on the metro and Zaventem airport.

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