The cabinet is setting aside €28m over the next four years in an effort to stop youngsters turning to Muslim fundamentalist and extreme-right political groupings. Most of the money will go to city and town councils for locally-based projects, according to a home affairs ministry plan.

Islamic and extreme-right radical thought are the biggest threats to Dutch society at the moment, the ministry plan states.
‘Polarisation and the spread of radical ideas are a broad social problem which needs to be prevented, counteracted and contained,’ the ministry statement said. ‘Polarisation and support for radical ideas is becoming greater and more intense.’
Young people in search of an identity were particularly vulnerable, the statement said. The plan, therefore, aims to bolster their resistance to radical ideas through family support, education, dialogue, work and stimulating variety on the internet.
On a national scale, the government is planning to take action against the spreading of hatred in schools, prisons, mosques and on the internet. Efforts will also be made to improve expertise among parents, teachers, social workers and the police.
In the first local project to get funding, Amsterdam’s Slotervaart borough council has been awarded €400,000 . It plans to use the money to train teachers and youth workers in ‘intercultural’ dialogue and set up an early-warning system to spot young radicals.
Slotervaart is home to the Holland-born Muslim fundamentalist who murdered film maker Theo van Gogh.