Hyderabad: As security agencies grapple with rising trend of youth coming under influence of Islamic State, a seminar-cum-interactive session is being organised here next week to discuss ways to wean away people from the violent and ultra conservative ideology of the terror group.
State Minorities Commission for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is organising the event here to educate youth about the perils of ISIS’ ideology and serious repercussions of getting involved in its activities through social media.
Commission Chairman Abid Rasool Khan said the event is planned for either August 5 or 6. Eminent Muslim leaders, religious figures, police officers, legal experts and representatives of social media companies have been invited.
“This is an important session where we are inviting officials concerned with monitoring of intelligence, representatives of companies like Google and Facebook who are based in Hyderabad.
“We are inviting community ‘ulemas’ (scholars), religious leaders, media personalities and outlets who have some sway like Urdu newspapers, college principals, Vice-Chancellors of Universities like JNTU and Osmania and leaders of all political,” Khan told PTI today.
“The idea is to discuss how ISIS is affecting youth and how the youth are being taken in a wrong direction through certain websites and all those Facebook posts.
“To give parents a message on how they can control their young boys from getting involved in these activities, how they should keep a tab, under which law they can be booked and what are the punishments. The aim is to ensure the youth does not land in trouble and jeopardise their career and future,” he said.
“We really want them to understand that this is a very serious issue. Also we want to denounce ISIS totally and say they are the enemies of the community as well as the world today,” Khan said.
In addition, he said the Commission is trying to get people who have some say in the community affairs like Imams of mosques where large gathering happens everyFriday.
Ten to 12 imams of Mosques located in Hyderabad and other parts of the two States, including Kurnool and Nizamabad, are expected to attend the session.
Khan said these people also don’t know the danger posed by the ISIS, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq, where it has brutally killed hundreds of people.
The event is being organised in the backdrop of police in several states detaining men on suspicion of having links with ISIS or planning to join the dreaded outfit. In June-end, NIA busted a module in Hyderabad whose members allegedly owed allegiance to ISIS.
Khan also said a national conference of State-level Minorities Commissions, slated to be held in Bengaluru, would now be held in Hyderabad in August last week.
The attendees would dwell on subjects of national importance pertaining to minorities, he said.
Khan last week presented to Governor E S L Narasimhan, annual reports pertaining to his Commission for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16.
“In all three annual reports, we have seen that incidents like attacks on churches, attacks on Muslim women have increased year-on-year. Secondly, socio-economic development index (of minorities) has not improved even though so many welfare schemes are being launched.
“For over a decade, budgets allocated for minorities are not being spent fully. We have given reasons for this. Institutions set up for minorities are under-staffed,” he said.
Khan said the Commission also requested the Governor to give it “more teeth”.
“Ours are recommendatory powers. The Commission should be given ordering powers. We should be given more powers so that we can discharge our duty better,” he said, adding, a simple amendment in law is needed to facilitate this.
States like Karnataka have already conferred such powers to their Commissions, according to him.
PTI