Amidst the futile attempt of championing the victims of extremist views of ISIS, who later on regretted joining the ISIS, we missed a key point. A question that would slowly unfold the deep-rooted cause of this Islamic Crisis. We are happy and glad that a delusional and regretful human escaped from the evil claws of Islamic extremists, yet, we should not invalidate the reason behind these young minds before joining some extremist groups. It is their hidden desire to rule the world as Caliphates and their hatred against all the non-Islamic religions. We must analyze the “reason” backing their decision to join some extremist Islamic movements. Let reason dominate passion.

Quantum researchers have categorized the Jihadi’s reason behind joining ISIS into nine different columns. Let us discuss it one by one.

1. Status Seeker: Data suggests that about 12.25% of the people joining Islamic extremists are money-centric, i.e., they join them in want of some money that could help them climb higher in the social ladder.

My concern is that not all non-believers are rich yet; we all want to be wealthy and socially respected, didn’t we? But then how many of us in want of money decides to blow ourselves in public shouting “Jai Shree Ram” or “Long live Buddha” or “Hail Jesus Christ” or even “make way for Satan”? When we look across the globe, we will find none to a few such examples. However, these extremists proudly acknowledge their misdoings in the name of Jihad. Why? It is simple, their religion, their religious teachers, and their brotherhood permit them to do it. It is an undeniable fact that Islam gained popularity through ‘might’ and ‘sword’.  It boasts about the element of machoism, unlike other religions who gained their followers through discussions and by persuading the followers of other faith by logically identifying the problems of their current religion and giving the solution through their religion. The Holy Quran does not allow that space to identify the problems in Islam leave alone questioning them.

2. Identity seeker: The same argument validates these types of attention seekers as modern-day Islam glorifies and applauds those who kill and gets killed in action to establish the monopoly of their religion.

3.Revenge seeker: This is the most common argument given by Liberals and seculars. one may suggest that “these extremist groups were in a reaction to the suppressive policy of the West towards the Middle East”. This, however, is not entirely true. Reflecting on the history especially of the Indian subcontinent which witnessed the loot, plunder, and suppression by early Muslim invaders and then the way the entire population silently accepted their rule for thousand years yet had not reacted tells a different story of revenge. There had been clashes in between religious beliefs however, nothing came even close to the Islamist jihadis. People get killed for various reasons but not everywhere the murderer proudly shouts “Allah-hu-Akbar” as was in the case of Charlie Hebdo, or recently when a French Teacher had his throat slit. Strong exploits the weak, which is the law of jungle as well as the law of the modern civilization.  The game of economics facing the game of religious politics is a threat to the entire humanity.  Extremism in Islam provides respite for those who believe in such revenge taking tactics.

4) Redemption Seekers: Such mindset watchfully seeks nourishment from the same sacred text which suggests that dying in the name of the ‘Almighty’ can vindicate their sins and satisfy their soul. Here, death too plays a similar kind of role that a Joker plays in a game of card. It’s alright for someone to die for the sake of what they believe but its timing and method seem to create confusion among the Jihadis.

5) Responsibility Seekers: The majority of Jihadis falling under this category feels a certain sense of duty towards themselves, their family, or society. They join ISIS for some materialistic or financial support.

6) Thrill Seekers: They are a young group of kids who got bored playing “assassin creed” on their video gaming console and want to taste how a real battleground feels like. They have a lonely life and most probably a disturbed childhood.

7) Ideology Seekers: They are the most prevalent forces in ISIS, ‘Religion is the opium of people’ as stated by Karl Marx, proves him brutally correct after looking at these seekers. They are the ones who believe in imposing their faith upon the rest without feeling the need to satisfy the logical curiosity of the people belonging to another belief system. They are unable to perceive the diversified ways of how the human mind and nature functions. Such orthodoxy is again the gift of the same sacred text.

8) Justice Seekers: They are the sweethearts of all secular, leftist mindest as well as proves to be a perfect story plot for intellectuals, laureates as well as filmmakers. We already have witnessed how Burhan Wani, a hardcore Hizbul Mujahiddin commander, was projected as a poor son of a headmaster who decided to pick up arms to avenge the imaginary injustice faced by him. However, the only injustice they feel is being ruled by ‘Kafirs’ under the ‘rule of the constitution’ and not ‘Shariya’.

9) Death Seekers: Those who are religiously bound to faith yet gravely upset about some terrible losses they suffer choose to die as a martyr than to commit suicide. They want to leave the world labelled as heroes, and no other religion except Islam would provide such an opportunity. In Pakistan, we recently saw a man who murdered someone in the courtroom facing blasphemy charges was cheered as a hero by their Public, Clerics, and Police.

Each seeker mentioned above, in one way or another, is related to the particular mindset of totalitarianism, and, unfortunately, the only religion that seems to advocate the idea of forcefully imposing itself on others in today’s world is Islam. Sane voices must emerge from within their community, and impractical ideas/quest must be dropped at once for a healthy, friendly coexistence.

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