I read an article about the psychology behind people joining IS. A psychological perspective is indeed needed than just to look to religion as the explanation of why young men/women are joining the group, though religion might be the reason for some. There are innumerable youngsters who are frustrated in their lives. In fact, all of us have been through the phase atleast once, when we were extremely pissed with something and wanted to vent it out. Thankfully, we didn't kill anyone, maybe because we knew the consequences. But imagine a place where you can kill people at your will without any policing. Besides, you get to have sex with many people, and you don't have to be answerable to anyone. And above all, you don't have to work for hours to make money. That's IS. They kill people who disagree with them, they capture women/girls and force them into sex slavery and they don't have to worry about making money, because nobody is compared with others upon how much wealth they have, or what they wear. Is that not good enough for someone to join them? NO. We know that we would not do this, however miserable we are in our lives. There is a conscience in each one of us which tells us that this is NOT right, that we would rather keep fighting with the situations in our lives than to resort to something like this. But still they manage to get some of us. That's alarming!
And if you observe closely, the appeal of groups like IS rests on an individual's quest for personal significance. The article mentions that many people joining IS are badly tortured by their closed ones, or ostracised from their social groups. I think the least we can do at personal level to check that nobody falls into such a trap is to comfort people around us. All of us come across people who are aloof or feel left out. It doesn't take much effort to stretch your hand first and befriend them. It might sound silly, but we never know what they are going through, and all they need is a warm smile from someone. I would like to know your views as well, write as a comment. Here is the link to the article:
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/16/joining-islamic-state-is-about-sex-and-aggression-not-religion/
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/16/joining-islamic-state-is-about-sex-and-aggression-not-religion/
There may be various reasons for joining IS but I believe that religion plays a major part
ReplyDeleteWhat about children who grow up in the islamic state itself? They are not tortured by their close ones or ostracised from their social groups. Why do they grow up to be extremists? Why doesnt their conscience pester them? because from their childhood they are indoctrinated with ides like 'JIhad' and 'Kafir'a. They strongly believe that have a divine right to kill anyone who doesnt prescribe to their faith.
I don't think that life at IS would be any easy. There is every chance of them getting killed while fighting 'infidels'. They must be undergoing intensive training before going out to fight.
I believe such articles are a result of 'secular' media which wants to promote the idea of 'Islamophobia'. Such articles prevent people from questioning the underlying dogmatic ideologies of Islamic teachings.