The United Nations Security Council, yesterday, suddenly woke up to the looming dangers of international terrorism fuelled (or is it an excuse?) by religious fervour. Terrorism in itself is not a new threat, but the extent of current barbaric acts in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and Mali is cause for concern and it is time the Security Council took drastic measures to curb it. Gone are the days when terror was used as a political statement or a leverage to agitate for certain rights: Kidnapped senior or prominent personalities were used as bargaining chips to attain the kidnappers’ ends. That is not the case today. The new ‘Jihad’ extremism has gone global so have their modus operandi. They go to great extremes to terrorise their perceived enemies of what could befall them: Graphic images of mass executions and on-screen beheadings are professionally packaged and posted on the internet. A paradise for psychopaths! But the most worrying thing is that this new wave of radicalisation is roping in youth from all corners of the world. They are the fruits of religious extremism that has not spared any continent. Yet combating the likes of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), Boko Haram or Al Shabab with air strikes will not make them go away, what is needed is confronting the problem at the roots, the extremist nurseries that are sprouting out everywhere. The rise of extremist circles in the most unexpected places; the middle and upper classes, should be enough to send a shiver up the spines of world leaders sitting in New York. Radicalisation of our youth should end now otherwise it is a lost fight in advance.
