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….
Jay Boo says
Brother Rashid, needs talk some sense into him.
Maybe he will believe a former Muslim.
Al Jazeera sponsored NPR is spreading the same message. Its Islam commenters repeatedly call the IS the ‘self-styled’ Islamic State and the ‘self=proclaimed’ Islamic State. Yet they do not do that with Boko Haram or Al Qaeda.
Matthieu Baudin says
The man sounds more like a follower than a leader; it seems the problem is always ‘external’ and thereby responsibility is sidestepped.
ECAW says
Seems to me that those who become jihadis are only following the instructions on the tin. All anyone needs to become “radicalised” is to read the Koran and dip into the hadiths and the sira. ISIS are not doing anything that Mohammed and his companions didn’t do. In fact, their brand of Islam seems to be the closest to the original version of dear old Mo. Congratulations to them for following their murderous creed so faithfully. As for those Muslims who try to move away from the example of the perfect man and towards common decent humanity, Mo had a word for them, didn’t he?
Angemon says
The source of the problem lies on what they learn (islam) and not how they learn – Al-Baghdadi has a PhD in islamic studies, and I suspect he didn’t got it from FB or Twitter. And, of course, muslims have been waging jihad long before the USA even existed – no FB or Twitter back then.
particolor says
I took a liking to Bacon Crisps after seeing them on Fussbook !! 🙂
Red Bee says
Maybe the Emir can put the correct education on the internet.
There must be reasons the ISIS propaganda is this effective. I think it is because it lands on fertile grounds. On my website “Is Islam a threat?” (click my name) I offer a possible explanation.
Dr Nath says
Absolutely, the Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammadu Sanusi II was correct in the proclamation that it was the social internet connect that stimulated the awareness that glued the Youths of Islamic extraction to blindly and dedicated kill human being and destroy properties in the name of Allah ‘mandated Jihad. This presumption raises the question who is at fault- the youth, the Internet social media or the teachings of the Mohammed as contained in Koran the youth can independently access at freely nowadays to replace the poorly censured teachings from the Mosque from Imams who are concerned about accusation of fomenting violence. For instance, on the issue of Suicide Bombing Koran 9 verse 111, Mohammed asserted that Allah which implies their god has purchased the lives and properties of all Moslems and that they should go and kill -(the infidels, the uncommitted Moslems) and get killed and immediately go to Paradise where stupendous rewards of amazing magnitudes awaits for the fighters for Allah in blood and flesh. The same Koran strongly persuades the hatred of Jews and Christians with profound passion. That same Koran incites the capturing of defenseless women folks of Jewish and Christian origin and converting them to slaves for sexual gratification at will by the fighters for Allah an attempt to subvert legitimate democratic establishments in the world that guarantee and promote mutual coexistence peace, liberty and equality of all people of the world geographical locations.
In essence Islam attempts by Mohammed, s teaching to set its self at perpetual war to assert supremacy above the God the creator by instituting a perpetual war against its authority and dispensation explain why too many cases of diabolical injunction moral teaching to raise a springboard to fight for the realization of the wrong teachings that strongly stand opposed to civil liberality mutual coexistence. Most Moslems are not religiously expose to the wrong teaching because it is anti democratic expressions upon which modern civilization and establishment was predicted. But the social media has suddenly removed the lid such that youths can access the teaching on their own and be directly taught about what Allah through Mohammed would want them to do to be a true Moslem. The consequences are what we are seeing today as explained by the unstoppable rise of Boko Haram, ISIS, Hamas, Al-Qaida etc each arrogating to their hands the authority to extinguish precious lives and plunder properties, burn Holy Churches and turn many Churches to Mosque where the name of Allah is preached as opposed to Jehovah and His dear son Christ Jesus .A great number of lives have been lost and millions dispossessed before of the helpless leaders of the world silenced by the threat of not being classified as Islamophobic and as a result choose not to do anything as thousands of their citizens are converted surreptitiously to Islam to join the rapidly increasing number of birth by persons of Islamic persuasion most of who arrived to the developed democratic countries established by folks of Christian origins in the breeding of new generation of jihads for a future war to enthrone Allah’s’ teachings as awareness through social media multiply. Certainly if nothing dramatic is done the threat will be stupendously more than the what let the world to the second world war
abad says
Kano? Is that a planet in our galaxy? He looks like an alien lol
Lawrence says
The US needs a robust internet attack team that destroys all jihadhi websites as soon as they pop up.
I would think that our technology could perform this task, far beyond mere monitoring.
I don’t expect Obama’s team to support this hypothesis as they are even sympatico with ceding control of the internet to some sort of UN style transnational agency.
I would think that the next Republican nominee would emphasize a strong effort to destroy the jihadhi websites and servers.