New Zealand Mum Scours Web For Signs Of Life Of Radicalised Son Declared Dead On ISIS Facebook Page

A grieving mother from New Zealand is meticulously going through extremist-related websites to look for her signs that her son is still alive. The woman’s son, 18-year old Lukas Dam, was declared dead on an ISIS Facebook page.

The news of his death broke the heart of Karolina Dam, who is formerly from Auckland but is now living in Denmark, reports TVNZ. “But I need to know things, and I don’t know if he’s alive, I don’t know or if he’s in jail or if ISIS has killed him. I don’t know anything,” said Mrs. Dam.

She spends hours scouring the Internet and social media accounts linked to ISIS. The teenager was reportedly killed during a U.S.-led airstrike on a building he was supposed to be guarding last December in Ukraine. Mrs. Dam said she wanted her son to be alive.

Six months before the alleged death, her son, who was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit disorder, had travelled to the Middle East to join the ISIS militants. Lukas had converted to Islam since the age of 14. According to Mrs. Dam, a radical mechanic at work had influenced her son to fight for ISIS.

Organisations like HIzb ut Tahrir, a group campaigning for Sharia Law and a global caliphate, and Call to Islam appeared to have contributed to his radicalisation. The boy’s mother said she doesn’t want to call her son a “terrorist” because she believes he is just a victim. Mrs. Dam added that she thinks her son has been manipulated into joining the group.

She blamed the Copenhagen City Council for not doing more to help find her son. Reports said the council is responsible for implementing anti-radicalisation and integration programs. It had taken Lukas into its care when he was a troubled teenager but did not put him any of the programs.

Mrs. Dam said she had received an apology from Copenhagen deputy mayor Anna Mae Allerslev, reports Radio New Zealand. She claimed she had been trying to talk with Danish authorities to find out the truth about her son but officials had declined to comment about the situation and cited reasons of client confidentiality.

She said she is willing to do whatever she can to prevent the incident from happening to anyone else in the spirit of her son. Professor Magnus Ranstorp, who heads the Copenhagen Anti-Radicalisation Task Force, revealed an action plan was in place to prevent potential extremists from going to the Middle East.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said cases of parents who are concerned about radicalisation have been referred to authorities. While he had no information about the case of Mrs. Dam, he told Morning Report he was aware of parents in New Zealand who are worried about a similar incident.

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