EP Vice-President Ulrike Lunacek, an Austrian member of the Greens/ALE group, introduced the session following a video message by Parliament President Martin Schulz. In addition there was a screening of My Jihad, a documentary that examines how communities are trying to prevent young people in Belgium from becoming radicalised.

The debate focussed on issues such as how to define jihad, how people in Europe become radicalised, sharia law and the situation of women.

“You have 550 young people who left for Syria," said Vranckx, who was involved with the My Jihad documentary. "“I was very surprised that until that moment [just after Charlie Hebdo attacks] nobody in the media or even in politics had spoken to the families of the people who left."

Syed Kamall, the UK chair of the ECR group, who is a Muslim himself, described the different reasons that may cause people to become radicalised: from seeking a sense of identity, to violent people looking for a new cause or adventure, redress of a national grievance or believing it is difficult to live as a good Muslim in the West. “What is bizarre about it is that for many of these reasons, religion is not the issue but an excuse," he said.

Taslima Nasreen, an exiled Bangladeshi writer and laureate of the 1994 Sakharov Prize Laureate, accepted that there are societal reasons that can drive people to radicalisation, but said “Many Muslims are inspired by Koranic verses to become violent, to become terrorists." She added: ”Free thinkers in Muslim countries are increasing, but whenever they criticise Islam, they either are imprisoned, forced to leave their country or get killed.“

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