British Muslims are being groomed by 'charismatic recruiters'

The typical age range for Britons joining jihad has fallen from around 25 to 35 during the Afghanistan War to 14 to 26 now.

And, for the first time, significant numbers of Muslim women and young girls in the West are joining the conflict too.

Haras Rafiq, managing director of the Quilliam Foundation counter-extremism think-tank, said the changes were mainly being driven by Islamic State's use of propaganda and technology.

Mr Rafiq said: "Youngsters are looking for solutions to problems and grievances they may have.

"These grievances may be either real and genuine, perceived or partial.

"It could be anything - that they are bored, that they are looking for adventure or suffering from racism.

"In the case of women it could be that they are suffering from cultural regressiveness.

"What happens is that they are driven to charismatic recruiters either offline or online and then they find a solution to their problems ... which has a theological justification under it.

"Isis is almost like a corporate entity, this is 21st century jihad and getting their message out to people is very important to them."

Mr Rafiq said there are three types of people returning from jihad to the UK - those who are left disturbed, the dangerous and the disillusioned.

And he claimed there was a need to get the message across that jihad is not an adventure or like a school gap year.

He said: "We need to focus on the ideological, the intellectual, the social, emotional and spiritual aspects of the lens that charismatic recruiters will try to push these people through.

"The style with which we do that has to be one youngsters respond to - it could be humour, it could be satire, it could counter theology or counter politics, giving them a whole new way to solve their grievances.

"Just as we do with fascism, we need society to come up with its own ideas and mechanisms and civic society needs to respond to that."

Professor Anthony Glees, of the University of Buckingham's Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said social media was "very important" among the drivers leading people to join Islamic State, although he added that there are also "other factors in play".

He said: "If you counteract this, that would be one thing but it wouldn't solve the problem overnight."

He said IS are "masters of propaganda", presenting the view that fighting for the group is "exciting".

Prof Glees added: "What should one do about it? It comes back to the importance of being able to intercept communications.

"The internet should not be a Wild West. It should not be an unregulated space.

"This is about intercepting communications. It is about knowing who is getting them and hopefully where they are, although that is extremely complicated in the post-Snowden era."