‘Society must help ex-militants turn over a new leaf’

KUALA LUMPUR: Society needs to give support to former militants to change and start a new life.

Indonesian author and deradicalisation expert, Noor Huda Ismail said society must also promote humanity which seemed lacking in the changing process.

“Most of the arrested terrorists want to change and start a new life.. the big question is whether society is ready to accept them and whether the government can help them in social change.

“I don’t say we should give them red carpet (treatment) but we have to classify them, to understand why they joined the (militant) group. What’s happening today is that we tend to be competing with each other rather than collaborating and promoting humanity.”

Noor Huda said this after the screening of his documentary titled ‘Jihad Selfie’ at The Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, here, yesterday.

Noor Huda said terrorism was not just a security issue but also a social issue that required all parties to work together in addressing the problem.

He said in his interviews with ex-militants, they had described their life as boring and stressful but realised that most of the ISIS campaigns were just illusion and not happening according to what they were told.

‘Jihad Selfie’ traces the journey of a 16-year-old Indonesian student in Turkey wishing to travel to Syria to join the Daesh group, following in the footsteps of a number of his friends.

It also shows interviews with returned Daesh fighters.

The filmmaker looks at the impact of Daesh’s online presence on young Indonesians and examines the strongholds of Daesh supporters, namely Lamongan (in East Java), Jakarta, Cairo and the Syrian border. — Bernama