Peer pressure among children and youngsters to display piety, promotion of activities that encourage their religious herding and faith-based indoctrination in their formative years in this part of the region have turned many parents into a worried lot in the wake of reports of alleged links of several educated youngsters, including married couples, with the Islamic State (IS).
The reports of several Muslim youths missing from some parts of the State, including 13 from Thrikkarippur and Padanna areas in Kasaragod districts, over the past month, are worrying many Muslim parents who want to provide their children good education to ensure better career options, because of their concern about religious indoctrination influencing and radicalising their children.
Fears of radicalisation
Some of the concerned parents The Hindu spoke to here in the wake of the latest reports of the alleged links of the missing people with the IS, shared their anxieties about their own children’s future in the backdrop of fears of radicalisation.
Serious situation
“It is unbelievable that the indoctrination of the children in the community has reached such a serious situation,” said a college teacher here hailing from a Muslim family.
A mother of two, she also pleaded for anonymity. She said that religious indoctrination creates a sense of religious exclusivity among children at their early ages. This paves the way for their herding, she said adding that the promotion of herd mentality will endanger children’s future.
Hameed Chennamangaloor, writer and critic of Islamic fundamentalism in the State, said that the Internet is nowadays a major source of Islamic indoctrination of children and youngsters.
