New Delhi -- It was reported by various news portals that Kiren Rijiju, union minister of state for home, has said that Muslim youth from south Indian states are most likely to get attracted to radical ideologies and be lured by the Islamic State. Following that, 'South Indian Muslims' started trending on Twitter.
The reports state that during an interview with India Today TV, Rijiju said that India was ready to fight IS, but added that he suspects that Muslim youth may get lured by the group.
Zee News quoted Rijiju as saying, "It's very difficult for me make a comment on that. South India has been having traditionally more links with Middle East so there is more regular exchange of travelling there. But I cannot say that it's the reason. But reports have come more from South India and that's a reality."
However, it wasn't Rijiju who originally suggested that south Indian Muslims are prone to get radicalised more. During the course of the interview, host Karan Thapar cited a report on The Hindu, which hinted that a majority of Muslim youth who get attracted to the IS are from the five southern states and mostly have engineering backgrounds. Here's the report that Thapar may have been referring to.
The report says: "There is no set pattern for the kind of Islamic State sympathisers under watch by Indian agencies, except that most of them are from the southern States, and many have an engineering background."
Thapar then asked, "Why is it that south Indian Muslims get attracted to Islamic State more than north Indian Muslims?"
Rijiju's first response to the question was, "It is very difficult for me to comment on that."
Then he proceeded to say that people from the southern states have more exchanges with Saudi Arabia and but he still refused to suggest that it is either a reason or proof that Muslims from southern states are more inclined to terrorism.
"But I cannot say that is the reason. Reports have come from south India, but I can't attribute it to certain reasons," he added.
In fact, Rijiju maintained that he will not point at any region as breeding ground for terrorists and also said that there is no need to be extremely alarmed about the involvement of the country's youth in terrorist activities.
When asked about Bengal, Rijiju said, "I cannot raise the alarm bell by pointing out a region. We can't identify particular region as it generates unneccesary controversy."
Contact HuffPost India
Also see on HuffPost:
