Maute enticing minors as suicide attackers

The recent Manila casino arsonist who suffocated 37 persons dead then shot himself turned out to be a crazed gambling addict, but he might well have been a religious suicide attacker. The Islamic State-inspired Maute has been wanting to produce such “martyr,” thus its recruitment of pre- and teenagers. It’s not to fight in the frontline yet; the child conscripts’ builds still are frail for high-power weapons. But indoctrinated in Islamist extremism, they are useful as spies and porters, even as human shields and hostages. They are exposed to beheadings to desensitize them. Eventually they can become robotic suicide bombers. Security officials beware. The IS, its strongholds in Iraq crushed and in Syria besieged, is now calling for suicide hits in Asia and Europe. Those young recruits can soon become the Maute’s weapons of mass destruction.

Unlike in the Middle East, youthful suicide strikers are rare in the Philippines. Strong family ties and parental sense of duty shield minors from self-destructive behavior. Ordinary Christians and Muslims alike strive for peaceful home lives. But poverty and drug addiction have been breaking up homes of late. Communists are able to entice youngsters as full-time guerrillas because they not only are one less mouth to feed for poor parents but also can “earn” cash, cigarettes, and a rifle. Abu Sayyaf kidnappers recruit teenagers with shares of ransom collections. It’s no different from parents forcing nubile daughters into prostitution to feed their drug habits. The Maute and similar militants enlist disaffected youths by trickery. Early this month the authorities arrested a Cotabato city hall engineer for recruiting high schoolers to the Ansar al-Khilafa Philippines, a Maute ally. A day before, the army rescued five child conscripts of the Maute in nearby Parang, Maguindanao. In the latter case, the parents had alerted the police of their children’s “mission”. The youths had been promised P100,000 for their parents upon arrival to fight in Marawi, Lanao del Sur, plus P25,000 a month thereafter. They were placed under the care of the town’s social welfare unit.

The International Labor Organization has long warned of the recruitment of child combatants in conflict areas in the Middle East and Asia. They are used as foot soldiers, messengers, and in North Africa even as sex slaves, the ILO laments. In “Child Soldiers in the Philippines,” Merliza Makinano researched for the Dept. of Labor and Employment how different armed groups get young fighters. The Abu Sayyaf, aside from offering cash and arms, even promises scholarships in foreign lands.

The Maute recruitment of children is through the “hafiz,” or Quranic studies. Perfected in their hometown of Butig, Lanao del Sur, the Maute clan of Islamist extremists took in mostly orphans of Moro separatists and youngsters traumatized by social injustice and warfare. Muslim evacuees from Marawi to Iligan City tell of seeing child soldiers, one as young as four years. A grandfather who witnessed no such armed minors nonetheless told CNN about the near recruitment of his grandsons, aged 16 and 14. Timely intervention saved them; he explained to them the emptiness of the Maute cause. A video found by government troops during the 2016 fighting in Butig showed youngsters jogging, eating, and drilling with adult recruits. Dean Julkipli Wadi of the University of the Philippines-Institute of Islamic Studies says the youths are made to believe that fighting is the straight path to heaven. Young males are told that joining jihad, or holy war, is for both God and the Bangsamoro (Moro-land). The Maute capitalizes on the recruits’ desire for vengeance for war atrocities, with promises of 72 virgins awaiting martyrs in heaven. Political science professor Yasmira Mojer, of Iligan Institute of Technology, told Al Jazeera that the government’s war on terror also is being used in recruitment propaganda. Radical groups pick on disillusioned youths who see socio-economic inequity amidst unfulfilled promises for Moro uplift.

The Internet effectively introduces and reinforces Islamist youth radicalism. Experts say fragile minds find online a community that shares the belief in purity through ultimate sacrifice of life. The Net itself does not make a terrorist, but it spreads extremist propaganda far and fast. Radicalized netizens easily are recruited to become lone-wolf attackers. Much can be learned from how Israeli, Palestinian, and European authorities shadow teenage cyber-jihadists. Certain terms and phrases alert them to potential extremist agit-prop.

A slew of intertwined actions are needed to stem suicide bombers. Firearms and explosives control direly is needed in Mindanao. Progress must be brought to Muslim communities through water supply, health services, and infrastructures. The government must assist the vast majority of moderate “imam,” Muslim clerics, in teaching true Islam along with math and science. Special care must be accorded to integrate to “normal society” orphans and victims of separatist wars. Christians would do well to understand Muslim countrymen.

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