Religious education can counter radicalisation and terrorism, ISIS recruits have little knowledge of Islam

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trong religious education acts as a bulwark against radicalisation, and most members of the Islamic State have little knowledge of Islam, said Asif Ibrahim, former Prime Minister’s envoy on countering terrorism and extremism, Friday.

In 2015 Mr. Ibrahim, former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, was appointed Special Envoy by Narendra Modi.

Mr. Ibrahim said 108 out of 180 million Indian Muslims have joined the IS in recent years at a conference organized by the Policy Perspectives Foundation on India-UAE cooperation against radicalisation and terrorism.

“About 50% of the recruits were Indians living in Western Asian countries when they joined the IS and were exposed to extremists from Salafi. 40% of recruits came from India’s coastal areas, “he said.

Monitoring radicalisation

“The narrative nowadays is that the more religious you are, the more fundamentalist you are. The U.K. intelligence forces proved that wrong. They interviewed IS returnees and their religion was little known to 90 per cent of them. Strong religious education counteracts radicalisation as a bulwark. So much so that countering violent extremism is a key chapter in most religious texts at many madrasas (seminars) in India, “Mr. Ibrahim said.

Adil Rasheed, a research fellow at Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), said all of the Salafis were not extremists.

“India and the UAE are also against the religious philosophy. It’s not a single method, whenever there’s radicalisation. If we need to fight the threat, then we need to go back to the Constitution. Even the Saudi prince says he should follow the UAE model [to counter radicalisation]. The ultimate process is radicalisation; the first is fundamentalism, and then comes extremism, “he said.