ANALYSIS

Challenge idea of killing for honour to break the chain

LIKE all people, young Muslims are influenced by their social circle.

Friends, neighbours, colleagues and family are often key determinants for terrorist activity. So, radicalisation is a social process. Whether online or offline, let there be no doubt that camaraderie and personal links have built this deadly global movement to what it is today.

Recruiters have masterfully woven an ultra-simplistic reading of Islam with a crucially dynamic narrative of grievance, injustice and scapegoating.

Their target audience is a generation that have grown up with a spotlight on their faith – a faith and identity they often reject, but rarely abandon.

Knowledge of our faith is superficial at best. A future without terrorism will require a correction of this ignorance.

Ultimately the success for the extremists who radicalise these young men and women is that they arm them with a sense of unwavering conviction that an act of violence is an act of honour.

Challenging this conviction is key to breaking the chain of terrorism. A man with any doubt is not the sort of man who tries to kill and maim innocents.