A SYDNEY youth worker who boasts of personally deterring up to seven school kids from joining Islamic State has warned of the “atrocities” Australia will face if effective deradicalisation strategies aren’t enforced.

Sarkis Achmar, who works with vulnerable young people in the city’s south west, told news.com.au that governments, community groups and programs were misdirecting their efforts to save teenagers from Islamic extremism, and were being let down by a desire to be politically correct.

Mr Achmar said if a more effective approach wasn’t taken, we could see “another Parramatta shooting”.

“I’m not fear mongering, but I’m talking about this small percentage of people that can have a large impact, and the more we turn a blind eye to the issue and whatever is causing this issue, as time goes on there will be an atrocity that might slip through the cracks,” he said.

Mr Sarkis said the shooting death of police worker Curtis Cheng by a 15-year-old extremist, the Lindt cafe siege and a shocking number of planned terror attacks thwarted by police, were evidence of a growing problem with extremism.

“The recruiters are sending kids to cut people’s heads off. They’re sending them overseas to rape and commit genocide. It’s not just our everyday run of the mill crimes here,” he said.

“What we are finding is we’ve got a really good policing system, but we’re not as good at getting to the source of the problem and facing it ... everyone is too scared to boil it down and tackle it.”

While beheadings and joining wars are at the more extreme end of what vulnerable boys in Australian schools are being roped into, Mr Achmar says many students are being radicalised to the point of refusing to continue their education, prioritising preaching above their health, making money illegally, and detaching from their families.

Mr Achmar believes there is a divide in what certain groups and authorities are aiming to achieve, and what they’re actually willing to put into practice in addressing the problem. He believes confusion, and fear of offending religious groups is detracting from efforts to curtail extremism and recruitment.

“There is a total misunderstanding of the problem and the groups on two sides aren’t helping. There’s one that’s scared of acting for fear of being called a racist or a bigot, then you’ve got the other side saying they’re always targeted. They way they’re looking at it now is that it’s a personal battle,” he said.

“The actual problem is an absolute lack of identity for some young people. They have no idea who they are. They’re searching and they’re not finding answers in all the services and program and from everyone claiming to represent the community. They’re feeing like they’re being misunderstood and then all of a sudden there’s a sense of belonging and a vision of where to go.”

Mr Achmar said rather than filling the void vulnerable teenagers might otherwise fill with drugs, petty crime, violence and promiscuity; school kids — particularly young Muslim boys — are being presented with “a warped version of God’.

“For them it’s a purpose in life. That’s what it is, and they believe that at the end they’re doing something for a great good, a greater goal,” he said.

But because of the religious aspect, he says there is a hesitation among authorities to identify a sudden infatuation with prayer or Islamic traditions — whose meanings extremists hijack to suit their destructive interpretation — as wrong.

Anti-extremism programs have come under the spotlight in recent weeks following the dismissal of the principal and vice principal of a Sydney boys school over their refusal to implement one.

A former student and vice-captain of the school this week told 60 Minutes he believed the school didn’t require a deradicalisation program, and criticised the government programs being rolled out in schools dominated by young Muslim men as “doing recruiters a favour”.

“They detach us from the Australian society and they make us lose our sense of belonging,” he said. “If they’ve got no one to turn to, then who are they going to turn to? I think we know the answer.”

Mr Achmar said schools were a target for radical recruiters.

He said as well as effective programs with good understandings of why vulnerable boys were succumbing to what extremists had to offer, school had something else missing.

“Spiritual education is put on the backburner,” he said.

“When these people get caught up in religion and these warped adaptations of its meanings, it might be their first exposure to spirituality and it hooks them in. For them it’s a purpose in life. They believe they’re doing something for a greater good and a greater goal.

“We address other issues — we address homelessness, mental health, physical health — but it’s our spiritual needs that’s been put on the backburner and that’s what’s lacking.”