"Krone" commentary

We remain inferior to these students

Susanne Wiesinger is a teacher at a hotspot school in Vienna-Favoriten and an author.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

TikTok is to blame for the radicalization of Muslim youth! More precisely, young preachers who introduce users to the most radical interpretation of Islam.

My practical finding is that there is something to it. Even primary school children are watching videos with highly questionable content. Alone, often with their older brothers or even with their fathers. They enthusiastically tell their classmates about it. What can be done?

Stricter control of platforms is a good approach. However, this will hardly eradicate the ideas of strictly conservative Islam from the minds of many young people. It starts earlier, with seemingly harmless statements. "Carnival is forbidden. Dressing up is haram", for example. "Where do you hear things like that?" I asked and got the answer: "At Arabic school." In Koran classes, which many Muslims attend at the weekend in small mosques.

I'm not suggesting that they are radicalized there. But the breeding ground has been sown: "Don't celebrate the festivals of unbelievers, don't make friends with Christians!" These are statements that I already hear from primary school pupils. Of course, we teachers try to educate them. But we shouldn't forget one thing.

Even if these pupils like us, we remain unbelievers and are therefore inferior. Not all Muslims teach this to their children. But there are more of them and these children are growing up. And that is frightening.