“They are easy prey” for the Islamic State terror organisation, said terrorism expert Ahmad El Muhammady.
They are all young and they make up 80% of Malaysians arrested so far for their links to IS.
“More often than not, these youths are fed up with half-truths,” Ahmad told FMT.
“IS provides them with a new vision, meaning and direction in life, the very things they yearn for. However, they fail to realise that they are being exploited. They believe they are fighting for a just cause and they know the risks involved.”
Ahmad, who teaches Islamic Studies and Political Science at the International Islamic University Malaysia, is an advisor to the Royal Malaysia Police Rehabilitation Programme for terrorist detainees and has interviewed more than 50 of them, some as young as 14 years old.
“Some of them are too young and naive to even understand the meaning of jihad,” he said.
In his interviews, Ahmad found that most of them were emotionally and psychologically unstable. They feel empty. But when approached by IS recruiters, they suddenly feel they have a purpose in life and someone to guide them towards fulfilling that purpose.
A typical example is the 16-year-old arrested last year after he intimidated a woman with a knife in a supermarket in Sungai Petani. He wore an IS-style mask.
He was sentenced to jail for involvement with a terror group and is undergoing rehabilitation. He’ll be sitting for his SPM examination this year.
The authorities described the Sungai Petani incident as a lone-wolf attack and said the teenager had been instructed by a senior to kill non-believers. He had been led to believe it was permissible in Islam to wage war in Malaysia.
Ahmad said the authorities were concerned that despite the scores arrested, IS is still actively recruiting members in Malaysia.
As a strategy in their psychological warfare, members hoist IS flags across the country to make their presence felt and instil fear among Malaysians.
Ahmad described Malaysia’s rehabilitation programme as one of the best in the world, but he acknowledged that it was not perfect. There have been cases of recidivism, he said.