Would-be jihadists can be ‘cured’ by talking to them

A RESEARCHER who convinced Islamic State sympathisers to reject extremism has suggested the “cure” for radicalisation is scrapping the taboo of engaging with jihadists.

Omar Shaukat, a former senior research fellow with the Afro-Middle East Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, interviewed 18 actual and potential IS recruits.

He discovered the Koran did not play a significant role in motivating them to join terrorist organisations, but rather a desire for “bad-ass-do-goodery” that was much more the driving factor.

Mr Shaukat, a Muslim who works as a financial planner, interviewed nine jihadists and nine people who were considering joining IS. All were male and between the ages of 22 and 45. They were interviewed in 2014-15.

Following his discovery regarding motivation, he said he convinced two South Africans who were considering joining IS to reconsider.

Mr Shaukat, who lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, described his “cure” for jihadism as rejecting the taboo of engaging with would-be terrorists as well as the legal restrictions that come with such engagement.

He said he offered the prospective jihadists “a more effective strategy” for improving the lives of Muslims than becoming militant.

“The cure, I would say, is civil society reaching out to these groups of people and trying to set up a dialogue,” he said.

“Not taking up the militant [path] but doing more social justice work and community work. Show them that’s a better and more effective strategy than becoming militant.”

He said he managed to convince two potential recruits that extreme and grotesque acts of violence had historically not been so successful.

His research was revealed in a talk hosted by Religion Media Centre last week, and which forms a chapter in

Scripture and Violence, a book with contributions from academics around the world.

In his essay, he concludes that to dissuade people from extremism, they need to be offered “non-violent or nonhateful ways of being radical that would still hold up in their eyes as being effective – or at least more effective than they can achieve by associating with IS-like groups”.