The Mahdi Times June 2014 | Page 12

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