Mubin, Shariq are poster boys of Islamic Jihad, not the so-called misguided youth

That noisy pitch about these persons being misguided needs to stop because data shows that 62% of the terrorists are educated, highly radicalised, and know exactly what they are getting into.

New Delhi, Nov 23: The blasts in Coimbatore and Mangaluru have put the focus right back on the radicalisation in South India. Both the Coimbatore and Mangaluru bombers, Jameesha Mubin and Mohammad Shariq are educated.

While it has become very clear that it was the extreme amount of radicalisation that led these two radical Islamists into carrying out what they had planned, there is still a large quarter of people who believe that the bombers were misguided.

That noisy pitch about these persons being misguided needs to stop because the data available shows that 62 per cent of the terrorists are educated, highly radicalised, fighting towards the larger goal and know exactly what they are getting into.

Not unemployment, silly!

Back in the 1990s, there was a discourse that major terror groups look for unemployed youths and pay them into carrying out attacks. While one may have seen that happening in the Mumbai serial blasts, the terror scenario has changed a large deal today.

When the infamous Burhan Wani of the Hizbul Mujahideen, who shot to fame for shooting more selfies than bullets, was killed, there was a gang which described him as a misguided youth and the son of a poor headmaster.

In this context, we must also revisit the interrogation of Yasin Bhatkal or Sardar Nagori of the Indian Mujahideen and Students Islamic Movement of India. Both made it clear that the attacks they carried out or orchestrated were part of a larger ideology called Islamic Jihad. Not once did any of them say that they were carrying out these strikes to raise money to feed themselves or their families.

Stats don't lie:

Let us dig into some data here. The statistics available with OneIndia shows that 62 per cent who go there as terrorists today are highly educated, radicalised and are only fighting to establish religious supremacy, the Caliphate.

In this context let us look at four youth from Kalyan, Maharashtra who had joined the Islamic State, the same outfit Mubin and Shariq subscribed to. The four Areeb Majeed, Fawad Shaikh, Shaheen Tanki were civil and mechanical engineers. Only Tanki was a HSC dropout, but he hailed from a decent family.

In the year 2018, a plot to kill British people revealed that the module involved had a majority who were doctors. 62 per cent of these terrorists are educated and are brought up in well to do families, the data showed.

Preference for engineers:

Terror groups these days are giving preference to engineers and this is because they have technical expertise. Now why would an engineer who has no dearth of money take this path, an expert OneIndia spoke with asks.

In this context let us look at a report of the Criminal Investigation Department, an intelligence wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. It says that 32 per cent of the youth who joined terror groups had passed Class X and 19 per cent were undergraduates or graduates. Post-graduates constituted 7 per cent and the remaining 7 per cent were without any education.

The religious incline:

A report submitted by the CID to the Ministry of Home Affairs said that 65 per cent had taken to terror because of a religious inclination. 10 per cent were academically inclined while 3 per cent were drug addicts and the rest were vagabonds.

The CID also said that 25 per cent had access to the social media in 2010 and this rose to 70 per cent in 2017. The decision to opt for guns is a youth phenomenon and those taking to terror are the ones with a thrill seeking attitude, the report also added.

A document prepared in the United Kingdom titled 'Radicalisation of Muslims' said that the age at which a Muslim becomes radical is 21 years. A Muslim is vulnerable to radicalisation between the age of 16 and 34.

This makes it so clear that these are not the so-called Muslim youth who have taken to the gun in the larger pursuit of employment or money. The reasons cited in the document for why these persons are radicalised is because the youth feel that the Western policy has led to Islam being under siege. The death of a loved one is another reason, the document reads.

One of the main differences between an educated and an uneducated terrorist is that the former has a wide understanding of political issues. The educated one is also likely to be ready to die for a cause as materialistic gains mean nothing to them.

Hence in a nut-shell, the concept of misguided youths is a myth and the educated terrorist is fully aware of what he is doing.