KUALA LUMPUR: Education and community involvement are two main factors that can prevent youngsters from being recruited by the extremists especially, Islamic State Of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).
Education allows people to see through the empty promises made by the extremists, said Terrorism Research Initiative director Professor Emeritus Alex P.Schmid .
"In this digital era, our children is one click away from getting in touch with the ISIS. The society must play its role to protect and educate one another so that everyone can clearly see the true colour of this extremist group, he said in his speech titled The Need for Counter and Alternative Narratives as part of a Comprehensive Strategy to Effectively Combat ISIS at a forum organised by Global Movement of Moderates.
"Without education, one couldn't clearly differentiate between rights and wrongs," said Schmid, who has published more than 180 publications and reports about violence and terrorism.
Among his publications included Violence As Communication (1982), Soviet Military Interventions Since 1945 (1985), Terrorism And The Media (1992), Countering Terrorism Through International Cooperation (2001), After The War On Terror (2009), and Terrorism Research (2011).
Schmid stressed that in a good society, young people must have a sense of belonging, thus preventing them from being persuaded into a misled direction.
"It's natural for the young people to find groups outside of their families where they feel belonged.
That's why it's important to have a variety of groups which could cater the interest of the young people such as sport clubs and art associations. This will create a healthy surrounding for the young people and thus, avoiding radical groups to penetrate the society."
The Swiss-born Dutch scholar said that a society which doesn't take care of one another is vulnerable to ISIS.
"In such society, there is a few people who feel like they don't belong to the society they are in. These are the kind of people that the ISIS keen to reach to feed these people with a wrong sense of purpose in life," said the 71-year old.
While it is widely known that ISIS is actively using the social media platform to recruit its new members, Schmid emphasized the need to counter its influence by revealing the truth about the group using the same platform.
However, he said, to ensure that the messages reached the potential victims, Muslims themselves should play their roles.
"It should be done by Muslims or at least in close cooperation with Muslim scholars who have a deep understanding of Islam. This is because both the extremists and their prospects have closed minds and are often fact-resistant, refusing to give a hearing to arguments which are not coming from one of their own," he said.
Despite the burgeoning following in less than 16 months of its inception, Schmid is confident that ISIS can be contained.
"The ISIS always show its small victories on social media to attract people to join the group. In a bigger picture, it is losing," he said.
This forum was co-organised by Foreign Policy Study Group, Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism, Institute of Diplomacy & Foreign Relations, and International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies.