Why are the Youth Joining Terrorist Groups?

The Need for a Counter-Ideology motivate these individuals to turn away from violence and choose peace. The above reality has actually been experienced in history. In the early period of Islam, the Arab people were tribal in their culture. They had adopted the culture of the sword— hurling their weapons at their rivals. At that time they were given the Quran which proved to be a positive alternative for them. The ideology of the Quran made the Arabs ‘a nursery of (peaceful) heroes.’3 These early Muslims went beyond the borders of Arabia with the Quran and spread their Quranic mission throughout the world. The British anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith wrote a book A New Theory of Evolution (1948), in which, referring to the ancient history of Egypt, he observes how Islam spread to Egypt during the period of the Caliphate. He says: ‘Egyptians were conquered not by the sword, but by the Koran.’4 If they were made to realize that the Quran could be an alternative for them, the same history could be repeated with the young Muslims of the present day and the world would see that the violent activists of the past were now turning into the peace-loving heroes of today.