Why are the Youth Joining Terrorist Groups?

In present times Muslim youths are joining terrorist groups in large numbers. This is taken to be an inexplicable phenomenon. Nevertheless, this, based on my experience, can be explained in understandable terms.

The truth is that in their youth, people are very energetic. They want to do something revolutionary and dedicate themselves to a great goal. In order to satisfy this desire, my colleagues and I have adopted a method that is highly workable.

Sensing people’s enthusiasm for positive activism, we have planned a project, which is global in its reach and, at the same time, is completely peace-oriented. What it involves is the distribution of translations of the Quran and its supporting literature to all the nations of the world.

To get this project under way, we have decided to prepare translations of the Quran in all the major languages of the world. At present we have published translations in ten languages. When we launched this project, young people, both Muslim and non-Muslim, joined in the work with great enthusiasm. They began to make programmes on their own to take the translations of the Quran to people in different places.

Since, for some reason, the Quran is in the news these days, people show a certain readiness to accept copies of the Quran when it is presented to them in their own languages. This overwhelming response gives a further boost to those who have become part of our project.

At an international conference held in Abu Dhabi under the aegis of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, from April 28 – 30, 2015, I delivered an address in which I made the point that if we want to change the minds of the Muslim youth, we shall have to give them a peaceful alternative. The best alternative is the global distribution of the Quran. 

This goal for Muslims was set by the Prophet of Islam himself in the seventh century, as according to a tradition, he said that in future the word of God would reach every individual and every household of the globe.¹ At that time, this saying did not go beyond being a prediction. But, today modern technology and means of communication have made it possible to fulfil this prediction to the ultimate degree. Furthermore, in present times news of “Islamic violence” finds a place daily in the world media.

Young Muslims have to arise and disseminate the message of the Quran worldwide. This mission is a billion times more attractive for Muslim youths than terrorism.

This situation has led to the Quran becoming a subject of discussion and has increased people’s curiosity about the message of the Quran. People are eager to study it. Today we would do well to give Muslim youths the goal of conveying the Quran to those who are keen to know about it.

Young Muslims have to arise and disseminate the message of the Quran worldwide. This mission is a billion times more attractive for Muslim youths than terrorism. The only problem is that Muslim youths have not been made aware of this mission. If they have the importance of this task explained to them in a language which they understand, they will certainly give up violence and rally to the mission of the global dissemination of the Quran.

Recently research was conducted on the subject of terrorism, the findings of which are totally relevant to the present theme. Political scientist V.P. Fortna from Columbia University in her paper on terrorism observes,

‘Terror is a cheap way to inflict pain on the other side.’

The present terrorist culture is a result of nurturing anger. What are terrorists doing but hurling their inner negative bombs at their supposed enemies? They should have it explained to them that they have in their possession a more powerful weapon—the Quran, which is like a positive bomb, something which is a billion times more effective than the violent bomb to which they have recourse. This would certainly go a long way towards making these people give up violence in favour of peace.

The above reality has actually been experienced in history. In the early period of Islam, the Arab people were tribal in their culture. They had adopted the culture of the sword—hurling their weapons at their rivals. At that time they were given the Quran which proved to be a positive alternative for them. The ideology of the Quran made the Arabs ‘a nursery of (peaceful) heroes.’  These early Muslims went beyond the borders of Arabia with the Quran and spread their Quranic mission throughout the world.

The British anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith wrote a book A New Theory of Evolution (1948), in which, referring to the ancient history of Egypt, he observes how Islam spread to Egypt during the period of the Caliphate. He says:

‘Egyptians were conquered not by the sword, but by the Koran.’

If they were made to realize that the Quran could be an alternative for them, the same history could be repeated with the young Muslims of the present day and the world would see that the violent activists of the past were now turning into the peace-loving heroes of today.