Every day the media reports of young men and women arrested on their way to the Middle East to join the extremist Islamic terror outfit; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. A simple analysis of the recruits joining the ISIS and other terror outfits across the globe shows that the bigger number is either first or second generation migrants.
This prompts the question what is driving the youth to joining the outlawed jihadists amidst the clear consequences highlighted in the mainstream media? Researches have been conducted and some of the reasons expressed by most youth especially migrant youth are more the same in all parts of the globe. Radicalization cause, regardless of from what part of the country they moved to or if they moved within the same country but to a different location the problems leading to seemed to replicate.
See also: Terrorism May Increase In Kenya As Radicalization Of Youths Rise
- Alienation by the community
Most of the migrant youth are marginalized by the community around them either at school or in the neighborhood. Most youth seek to fit in any community and belong somewhere. This is very difficult for people youth especially in the teen years to allow others in their inner circle or be allowed in other people’s inner circle. This leaves the youth seeking to have that sense of belonging on the social media where the fall preys of the terrorist recruiters who offer a false sense of belonging and purpose.
- Rejection by Parents
This is can be loosely translated to parents paying very little attention to their children’s behavior and only react when things get out of hand. Some parents unknowingly neglect their children with the notion of giving the teenagers/youth privacy which leads to a lot of unmonitored online activity.
- Racial Profiling
People tend to profile people from how they look or where they perceived to originate. People that look like they originated from the Middle East often tend to be judged and at time treated with prejudice for the public’s fear they are terrorists. Youths who experience this kind of treatment tend to keep to themselves and withdraw from society. For instance in Kenya, People of Somali descent despite their social stature since the outbreak of the al-Shabaab attacks on the country find themselves discriminated against due to their look as they are seen as the enemy within.
- Lack of self-discipline encouraged in most Jihadi Doctrines in Islam
This can be clearly seen in the kind of destructive behavior most of the vulnerable youth engage in. They leave their homes regardless of the care they are rendered there and embrace doctrines they have scanty information about emulating selective phrases of the Islam religion guidelines.
Some of these problems faced by youth both abroad and at home drive them to seek safe haven in the false hope and misguided extremists’ doctrines. Change of institutions in to incorporate new members of the society without alienation or profiling them could be the first step. After-school activities sports, tutoring and mentorship programs should be introduced to keep the youth occupied and minimize time spent online.
While these are not the exact solutions they are a stepping stone in eradicating radicalization of naive, vulnerable youth of the society.
