In a counterterrorism report, “Moroccan Arrests and the Security of Militant Recruiters,” for Stratfor, Fred Burton and Scott Stewart cite a remarkable jihadist article from the Global Islamic Media Front. The piece provides “practical advice” on how to recruit for al Qaeda, notably in universities, in a hostile environment.

In addition to numerous other recommendations, the “expert” recruiter who wrote the article suggests avoiding mosques, as they may be under surveillance by the government. Universities, schools, bookstores, gyms and social clubs were all pointed to as more fertile places for recruiters to operate. To succeed in getting recruits to acceot jihadist ideology

the author recommends a gradual approach among recruiters for identifying, indoctrinating and eventually training and deploying recruits. In many ways, these tactics are similar to those undertaken by cults or even pedophiles who subtly “groom” young children in order to exploit them.

The information in this article substantiates the groundbreaking report on radicalization in the West that was produced by the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division in 2007, about which I commented here.