Militant Muslim fundamentalism is now targeting institutions for at-risk children in France, where youngsters are seen as ideal candidates for radicalisation.

A French government report on the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood has highlighted a growing trend: Muslim terrorists are increasingly targeting students.

Young people, easily influenced and shaped, have in fact become the primary focus of recruitment efforts.

This is especially true for children and teenagers without families, who are particularly vulnerable — many of whom end up in state-run institutions.

Islamists Recruit At-Risk Children From French Emergency Shelters How low can you go mo. https://t.co/7v5kZsTFdl

— Bridgette (@Righteousdudett) June 2, 2025

As V4NA previously highlighted, recent months have seen several violent terrorist incidents involving minors. At the end of March, in Orléans, a 16-year-old boy who had run away from a youth migrant centre brutally assaulted a rabbi. In November 2023, another 16-year-old was charged in northern France with glorifying terrorism and conspiring in a terrorist plot, after posting messages praising the Islamic State and watching jihadist propaganda.

Manon Sieraczek and Thierry Froment — a lawyer and a former investigative judge familiar with such cases — raised the alarm in an article for Le Figaro. As they wrote,

Young people between the ages of 15 and 18, who are gradually falling out of the education system, become easy prey for criminal and Islamist networks. They note that these youths are being recruited for prostitution, human trafficking, and spreading terrorist propaganda — and, in some cases, even to carry out terrorist attacks themselves.

This phenomenon is not surprising in Western Europe. A journalist at the Swedish Expressen newspaper previously investigated the activities of former Islamic State members who, after serving with the terrorist organisation, returned to Europe.

The findings revealed that one in four of the individuals studied — 21 people — had obtained jobs in the public sector involving responsibility for children, youth, or other vulnerable individuals.

In addition to kindergartens, schools, and social care homes, several radical Islamists who returned directly from the war in Syria were employed as youth workers or supervisors in children’s homes, including in Gothenburg and Helsingborg.

These institutions often house minors placed there by social services due to behavioural issues, criminal activities, or drug problems. Some also take in unaccompanied underage migrants. The facilities had no knowledge of the backgrounds of the staff members assigned to them.

In recent months, several individuals formerly registered as jihadists with the Islamic State have been discovered working in childcare and social institutions in Sweden—at a time when youth involvement in violent crime is becoming an increasingly serious issue in the country.