“We thought we were doing everything we could.”

A mother’s story of confronting radicalization at home.

We thought we were doing everything we could. Therapy. Medication. Monitoring his moods. Trying to keep our son safe from himself.

But we weren’t prepared for what we found online.

He had always struggled—with focus, with connection. Diagnosed with ADHD and autism. Prone to emotional extremes. Sometimes angry. Sometimes completely withdrawn. He didn’t have many friends. He didn’t talk much. But he prayed. And he spent a lot of time on his phone.

Then the FBI showed up at our door.

They had found violent videos. Execution footage. Extremist propaganda. Messages promoting acts of terror. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I couldn’t believe this was my child. But I also knew—deep down—I had already been afraid.

We tried taking away his devices. We tried reasoning. We argued. We cried. Nothing worked. He got more secretive. More devout. More angry. He told us we didn’t understand. That we were hypocrites. That everyone was.

That’s when we reached out to Parents for Peace.

They didn’t judge us. They listened.

They helped us understand that our son wasn’t just angry—he was in pain. That what he was drawn to wasn’t just ideology—it was belonging. Control. Something that made the chaos inside him feel orderly.

We were paired with two interventionists. One had lost his father to hate violence. The other had once been radicalized himself. They met him where he was—through his faith, his frustration, even his silence. And they worked with us too. They helped us shift from fear to connection. From control to communication.

We learned to set boundaries without shutting him down. We learned to show him affection even when his views felt unbearable. We learned to listen—not to the hate, but to the hurt underneath it.

And little by little, things changed.

He started exercising again. He rejoined his football team. He opened up about his dreams—what he wanted for his future. He stopped idolizing violence. He made real friends. He even started dating. He made mistakes, and still does. But he began to rejoin the world.

He’s not the same kid we were afraid of losing. And we’re not the same parents who were scared to face it.

We still have work to do. But we’re doing it together. And thanks to Parents for Peace, we’re not doing it alone.