Neighbours and friends described Jake Bilardi as, “shy and confused”. He was living with two older brothers and a sister after his mother died in 2012. One of Jake's classmates said, “He was really smart but seemed to get even quieter after his mum died."
So why would a gifted Atheist teenager from the Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn convert to Islam, join ISIS and become a suicide bomber?
If you ask Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, it's the use of social media by ISIS to radicalize impressionable young people that is the problem. I don't think that it's that simple. So if joining ISIS is seen as the solution for young people all over the world then what is the real problem? I mean you would have to be mad, a lunatic or in a pretty desperate situation to join ISIS.
In an article written by Kenan Malik in The Guardian titled "A search for identity draws jihadis to the horrors of ISIS", it discusses why middle class, English speaking background and non practising Muslim people are joining ISIS.
It can't be what is written in the Koran that is the lure, after all there has be a high population of Muslims in western countries for many years now and this is a relatively recent problem. An examination of the purchases by some young recruits from England before they travelled to Syria discovered they purchased books like "Islam for Dummies" and "The Koran for Dummies". In other words, they had little or no understanding of Islam before travelling to Syria. So if Islam is not the problem, what is?
Malik's article discusses alienation, isolation, apathy and disconnection from society. It's not politics or religion but the search for belonging, the search for respect, something that we can all identify with, that convince young people to travel to Syria. Some of the entries in Jake Bilardi's blog, as quoted in The Guardian say, that he felt that his home, "wasn't really his home". "It has gotten to the point where it feels like I am on a movie set." Going by these quotes coupled with the loss of his mother, it would seem that a perfect storm was created where by the sense of belonging to a group like ISIS was desirable.
We all know that killing people is wrong but we can't solve the problem of young people joining ISIS by condemning individuals or blaming social media. We need to deal with the context in which it occurs. If you treat people like outsiders they will feel like outsiders and they will seek belonging elsewhere. Many young people around the world feel disengaged from society and seek to join groups such as ISIS where they can feel like they belong, they have a purpose.
What Malik's article tells me is that our society is broken, it isn't working, the system isn't working, it's totally corrupt. If the insanity of ISIS can appeal to a certain section of the population we have a huge cultural problem. As a society we need to create a better alternative to ISIS and fix the problems that make joining ISIS the only solution. Until we do, the problem of young people joining ISIS will continue to escalate.
