The primary reason behind Islamic fundamentalism or Muslim youth being radicalized is attributed to economic factors such as poverty.
Whether it is a Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, a terrorist in Kashmir or an ISI agent in Hyderabad, the underlying assumption behind their indoctrination is poverty or inequality of opportunity. But that does not seem to be the case anymore!
A 32-year-old US-returned engineer, was arrested at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here late on Thursday night while he was allegedly on his way to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) along with his girlfriend, who lives in Dubai.
The youth, Salman Moinuddin, was also an active recruiter for ISIS, police said.
Sleuths of Telangana state Counter Intelligence said they had been tracking Moinuddin through his online activities following a tip-off from central intelligence agencies.
More importantly, the arrest of Moinuddin is the seventh instance of Muslim youth being nabbed while on their way to join ISIS from Hyderabad.
Those who were earlier nabbed and let off include a former Google employee, a JNTU student and four ‘fine arts’ students. That an engineer educated in the US, a Google employee and artists with a decent educational background have been radicalized indicate that the motives are no longer economic in origin.
These people have proved that hatred need not necessarily be an offshoot of poverty or perceived inequalities! So what could be the reasons? Unfortunately, the answers are not easy to find either.
However, by looking at ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ from a different perspective, that well-to-do Muslim youth with no personal history of personal injustices in their lives are willing to sign up for the causes of hatred, should be more than reason enough for us to alter the way we approach the problems of ‘Islamic terrorism’ and thereby enable us to be better prepared to deal with it.
