MCMC told to block IS video from reaching youths - Ahmad Zahid

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) should block all video recordings of IS violence on social media to prevent youths and women in the country from being influenced by their retrogressive ideology.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said apart from that, IS video clips could also give adverse pychological impact to the members of the community who viewed them.

"As an example, 10-year-old children were burning their friends in a cage in Dahtant, Yemen by imitating IS militants who burnt a Jordanian pilot shown on social media," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after closing a 'Campaign to Combat Violence and Reject Extremism and IS among the Younger Generation' at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), here Saturday.

Zahid said the violent video of IS could also get into the minds of growing children who needed close monitoring by all parties.

"Parents should play their crucial roles by monitoring the content visited by their children on the internet. This is because efforts to recruit IS followers is taking place via the social media without our knowledge," he said.

Ahmad Zahid said the group is targeting youths as recruits and this is the primary factor why IS is exploiting the social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube which are frequently visited by youths.

He said based on the confessions of suspects held by police and other foreign enforcement agencies, most of the youths were influenced with IS propaganda and they have family and financial problems or were having psychological and social disorders.

"They find shortcuts to clean up past sins by being involved with IS especially as suicide bombers," he said.

Zahid said from the 75 people detained for IS involvement, only about five per cent have religious education background while 95 per cent did not have religious education but joined the group to seek shortcuts to heaven.

Ahmad Zahid said: "It cannot be denied there were victims influenced by verses from Al-Quran and Hadith which were wrongly interpreted deliberately by IS as justifications for their involvement, purportedly the violence was sanctioned by Islam".

Meanwhile, Zahid said his ministry would set up a bureau to censor fake or fabricated hadith which would be chaired by Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria.

He said the bureau was established with the Al-Quran Intepretation Bureau and the committee would assist the hadith censorship bureau.

Meanwhile, Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division principal assistant director, SAC Datuk Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay said the tahfiz school where a 14-year-old girl was detained while trying to leave the country for jihad in Syria was not involved in the case.

This is because the student had just entered the school two months ago and the teenager had long been influenced by the struggle of IS via social websites, he told Bernama.

He was commenting on the student who was detained by police at the KL International Airport in January while trying to join IS militant group in Syria.

The teenager was later released after police could not obtain sufficient evidence.

"Most of them who were influenced by IS propaganda were in the teens and early 20's as the younger generation are easily influenced and are made the primary targets of IS militants," he said after the ceremony.

He said police would monitor individuals suspected of being oriented towards IS struggle and provide them with counselling earlier before arresting them.