barbaric or is brave enough to challenge
such a malevolent force regardless of
what the consequences might bring. Sufi
and Salafi Islamic groups in the UK are
advising their members to not join the
ISIS campaign because they believe that
is not their fight, however, I would
challenge that they are avoiding the
situation because of tolerance towards
Shi'ahs as their rhetoric regards Shi'ahs
as being heretics.
What does this mean for the
Call of Ahmad al Hassan (a.s)?
cognitive opening either coming from an
encounter of racism or prejudice in
western countries or from
unemployment in the Middle East. It
means that alternative belief systems
and training need to be provided to the
youth of Britain. Community projects
run up and down the country, to engage
better with youth, including the
community projects that I have run now
need to be taken more seriously and
financial backing needs to be extended
towards them so that this trend of youth
radicalisation can be stopped.
We know that the narrations tell of the
Mahdi (a.s) going into a period of quiet
for 6 (days / months / years) after which
he will emerge, most likely with a small
army. This means that in the intervening
period, the Ansar Allah of Iraq as well as
elsewhere will need to wait and be
patient whilst the situation becomes
progressively worse and work on
themselves.
What will it mean for Britain when the
battle-hardened youth who have killed
people in cold blood in the Middle East
return to Britain? How does one
assimilate such a mind back into civilian
society? Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan
Police's assistant commissioner and
head of specialist operations, believes
that Britain will feel the repercussions
of Syria for 'many years to come'.
What will this mean to History that is
taught in UK schools and around the
world? Can we expect them to spin the
ISIS conflict into a Sunni / Shi'a conflict
as we currently see on Radio 4 or will
they analyse it deeper and admit that it
is the product of inappropriate
intervention by the Western
governments in an already sensitised
post-Saddam era of politics? Why would
modern education now suddenly buck a
trend it has followed since the early part
of the 20th century when it taught a
selective history of the world wars.
Is the answer an alternative belief
system? But is the Western world ready
to even consider an alternative? Is it
ready for the teachings of Imam Ahmed
al Hasan (a.s)?
What does this mean for the
youth of Britain?
** Da'ish annual report 2013 available
at http://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/albinc481-magazine-1.pdf last accessed 22nd June
ISIS's members are young and brash
individuals who bear all the hallmarks
of youth whom I identified in my
Masters Dissertation in 2009*** as being
ideal candidates for becoming
radicalised suicide bombers: people
from under-privileged socio-economic
backgrounds who have undergone a
Anis Kotia
22nd June 2014
* Canon Andrew White (Vicar of Baghdad)
interview on Radio 4 22nd
June(http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/a
sx/b0474xkg/)
*** Available at http://www.salik-thetraveller.net/tacklin