This explanation just leads to a further question: why are these young Muslims so easily swayed by what they read on Facebook and Twitter? Why isn’t the instruction they receive in the local mosque sufficient to enable them to withstand the appeal of what the Emir of Kano evidently regards as a false, extremist, counterfeit Islam?
“Emir Of Kano Opens Up On Youths’ Attraction To Jihad,” by Isaiah Benjamin, Leadership, July 5, 2015:
The Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammadu Sanusi II, yesterday opined that exposure of the youths of today to information technology and new/social media is responsible for the youths becoming Jihadists and Boko Haram members.
The emir, who spoke at the 10th annual Ramadan lecture titled “The challenges of Muslim Ummah in the 21st Century,” organised by VON, NTA and FRCN, which held in Kaduna, yesterday, said the youths learn new ideologies from the internet and after watching, make up their minds to go to Iraq and Syria, to join the Jihadist groups.
“With information technology and the emergence of the internet and social media, today, youths go on the computer and learn Islam from Facebook and Twitter. They learn Islam from video’s they watch on Facebook and after 14 to 15 hours of watching new things, they feel the need to become jihadists.
“They get up and go to Iraq or Syria or somewhere and join the groups, and there are no controls. Right inside your house, your son can be sitting upstairs in the bedroom getting indoctrinated into an extremist without your knowledge. We need to watch what our children watch and we need to talk to them. If we do not give them the correct Islamic Education, they will find the wrong education on the internet,” he explained.
Lamenting that so much time had been spent in ignorance, the emir noted that Western education was important and it was inevitable for parents to send their children to acquire education but parents had to note that their children could become radicalised in any country of the world through the internet, and not only when they go to Islamic countries.
“You have children going to England and becoming radicalised in America, on the internet, not only in the Muslim countries. So, we need to make sure that we give our children correct Islamic education especially to take them away from religion extremism.
“In the 21st Century, the Muslim Ummah is facing enormous challenges. This century is facing challenges such as changing from traditional lifestyle to modern lifestyles,” he added….