HYDERABAD: Young Muslims, searching for a meaning or purpose for their lives, are the ones being lured by radical groups including ISIS, who make the youngsters feel part of a bigger cause, said Daisy Khan, founder and director of Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality & Equality, a New York based organisation. Groups like ISIS have a set of instructions to engage Muslims and the strategy varies for a Muslim from West, and East, she opined.
Delivering a talk on ‘Islamophobia, Radicalisation & the Road Ahead’, organised by AP & TS State Minorities Commission, and Help Hyderabad, on Saturday here, Daisy Khan said that they conducted a research on why IS is successful, and how they are able to recruit young Muslims who have opportunities to lead a good life.
Revealing the details of the research, Daisy Khan said that these organisations make the youth feel alienated from the society. “The process of radicalisation starts with making young Muslims feel that they have no meaning in life. They are made to feel alienated from the society, and asked if they don’t want to be in a place where they are treated as equals. They elaborate on how Muslims are suffering everywhere, and if they want to be part of a solution,” she said.
The recruiters explain that in order to be part of the solution, one has to revolt, said Daisy.
“When you are a young Muslim looking for meaning in life, somebody comes and offers this responsibility, to be part of something big, and part of a new State building operation, why wouldn’t you join it ? That is the psychological way to manipulate you,” she cautioned.
Quoting specialists, Daisy Khan said that there are three ways of rooting out terrorism, which includes curbing flow of finances, deterring attacks, and working on factors which mobilize people.
“Our faith, our religion, is twisted in such a way that if you are a marginal Muslim, who does not know much about his religion, you can easily fall for it. The job of every Muslim is to stop that at home, community, Mosque, Civil Society level,” Daisy Khan said.
Chairman of the State Minorities Commission Abid Rasool Khan, and others were present.