Recommended link to watch:

 

Norwegian Online Parent-child Journal for Migration and Families

Landmark

When as parents go through ITV channel and watch the “Sally and Micheal Evans” program which share their story about how her son Thomas became radicalized and joined the Islamic terrorist group, then was killed in 2015, as a mom or dad the first question comes to mind, no matter if you are a Muslim or Non-Muslim parent, is that, what if this happen to my child? How can I protect my child from this sort of events?

This is the reason we decided to produce and publish the “voodoo lily Journal” for parents who care about their child intellectual or cognitive development.

But we are in Norway, far from the terror-prone area so, can be still my child in danger, and What makes them more vulnerable?

Today, Islamic extremism groups have become more adapted at using social media to spread their propaganda, radical conceptions to inspire “lone wolf” jihadists to carry out attacks in the West. Norwegian language jihadi propaganda is not the exception. Norway is among the top ten countries in the world, with the most ISIS fighters relative to its Muslim population, surprisingly, Finland fighters are respectively in the first place, if you go further in the table you see Muslim native countries respectively located at the end such as Pakistan. It is said, the successful integration process prevents young people from joining extremists’ groups, so, understanding the failure in it, enabling us to build lasting peace.

One of the major causes of failure in integration is perceived discrimination that has many reasons, including age, gender, weight, religion, income level, disability, sexual orientation, and race or ethnicity. Dr. Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti and colleagues in one of their comparative studies explained that perceived discrimination has twofold, first created negative attitudes towards the majority and then attempts to confront injustice and publicly defend the rights of a minority group. Moreover, there is a link between “Perceived discrimination” and “In-group love / out-group hate” leading demobilize immigrants from taking a more active position to improve their social standing. Children’s perceptions of the world they live usually come through the lens of adult experience, so if adult perceive discrimination in consequence children do. It is desirable to keep talking about children’s perception of their world, meanwhile, looking for credibility and validity response help them to improve their moral cognitive.

Children easily notice other differences. Studies show that even infants can distinguish skin tones. By early childhood, kids have a more favorable opinion of similarities. In one study, for instance, experts randomly divided 6-year-olds into either a green or yellow color group. Then later, children remembered positive things about the kids in their own group and negative things about kids in the other group. It is recommended parents should talk about differences and discrimination to children. By avoiding to do so, children learn that the topic is taboo. Talking about these differences, children learn that the differences are acknowledged and come to appreciate diversity and better recognize discrimination when they see it. Children should be given a chance to ask questions about differences, when prevented from questioning the differences, they may form stereotypes, and later prejudice. Appreciation of diversity is the first concept which we should consider and discuss with our children. Unfortunately, parents usually find the “discrimination talk” has a difficult subject and uncomfortable. They should nevertheless keep talking.  Over time, these discussions will be easier to talk about. Always, welcome your children’s question but first search for credible answers. By helping kids better understand the world around them they would learn the value of diversity. Moreover, use children story language and avoid giving children too much information at once. Broaden their horizons by informing them through children stories.

To sum, we try to review the impact of stories and storytelling for Children’s Mental Growth with the specific concepts beyond it and persuade parents to get involved.

 

1- Benmelech, Efraim, and Esteban F. Klor. Forthcoming. “What Explains the Flow of Foreign Fighters to ISIS?”. Terrorism and Political Violence. https://scholars.huji.ac.il/eklor/publications/what-explains-flow-foreign-fighters-isis

2- Jasinskaja-Lahti, Inga & Celikkol, Göksu & Mähönen, Tuuli & Eskelinen, Viivi & Vetik, Raivo & Sam, David. (2018). When Psychological Contract Is Violated: Revisiting the Rejection-Disidentification Model of Immigrant Integration. Journal of Social and Political Psychology. 6. 484-510. 10.5964/jspp.v6i2.890.

3- Weisel, Ori & Böhm, Robert. (2015). “Ingroup love” and “outgroup hate” in intergroup conflict between natural groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2015. 110-120. 10.1016/j.jesp.2015.04.008.

4- Dunham, Y., and Emory, J. (2014). Of effect and ambiguity: The emergence of preference for arbitrary groups. Journal of Social Issues, 70(1), 81-98. Doi: 10.1111/josi.12048