KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — The recent arrests of six youths allegedly linked to extremist plots have renewed questions about how young people become vulnerable to radical ideologies and extremist recruitment.
The focus or blame was once again on social media platforms and mobile chat applications but security experts say radicalisation is rarely triggered by a single factor.
Digital platforms may play a role in spreading extremist propaganda, but the factors that make youths vulnerable to extremist messaging often started long before they even came across on-screen content.
Radicalisation does not follow a single pathway
Andrin Raj, director of the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network (NCTN), Finland, said the pathways that shape extremist beliefs among youths can vary widely depending on local cultural, political and religious environments.
Influences may come from family environments, peer networks, schools, religious institutions and wider social narratives.
“These influences shape how beliefs are transmitted and interpreted among younger generations,” he said.
Radicalisation rarely begins online
Although the six Malaysian youths arrested by the police were found communicating across mobile chat applications and gaming platforms, Munira Mustaffa—a security analyst with Chasseur Group -- said it should not be an assumption that the internet is the starting point for extremist radicalisation.
“Online platforms often serve more as spaces where existing frustrations or grievances are reinforced rather than where radicalisation first begins.
“Radicalisation doesn’t simply begin online. The online environment is where existing grievances consolidate, not where they necessarily originate,” she said.
“Offline conditions — whether that’s social marginalisation, a sense of not belonging, or conversely a sense of entitlement that goes unmet, or feeling unheard — can all shape the individual long before any platform does.”
These conditions can make some youths more receptive to ideological narratives that frame personal frustrations in broader political or religious terms, Munira added.
Extremist propaganda has long targeted South-east Asia
Citing some examples, Andrin, noted that extremist groups have used the internet as a propaganda tool for decades — online propaganda started even before the September 11 attacks.
“US Military Ground Intelligence had in the mid-90s identified Al-Qaeda’s online propaganda in the African continent and named it the War of the Ether.
“In 2023, the NCTN Cyber Intelligence Division identified the launch of the Malay medium ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) media in Malaysia — Al Malaka Media Centre.
“Numerous other links since then on ISIS have spread over the internet for the SEA region geared towards Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Southern Thailand in their respective languages,” he said.
Andrin said these platforms, however, are not new but are targeted for the SEA region from previous Al-Qaeda and IS propaganda media.
Recruitment happens in stages
Expanding further on social media or messaging platforms, Andrin said these tools are only privy to the user itself.
He explained that many online platforms or messaging that one sees openly on the internet are the “boy scout” recruitment for the reality that goes beyond.
“These platforms radicalise youths that are vulnerable as they act as individual supporters or even a group of friends.
“Islamist terror groups are aware that these youths are easily radicalised to carry out small but effective violence among their communities.
“Once they have identified a follower, they will go into the dark web to monitor and identify the IP addresses of followers and target them accordingly,” Andrin said.
He added that on larger, more extensive recruitment takes form after acknowledging that these individuals will become the core within the terror group to operate in their region of stay.
“Invitations to the Al-Qaeda messaging platforms or their secretive online sites takes three months prior to it approving an individual to enter their domain.
“IS takes about four to six months prior to recruitment.
“These are hardcore recruitments,” he said.
Andrin also stressed that Islamist terror groups such as IS, Al-Qaeda and others tailor their message in-line with political narratives of the country they want to recruit or radicalise.
“These narratives will be used to support the very political policies of a given state.
“As for Malaysia, its policies towards Palestine plays such a factor in Islamist groups narrating and tailoring their messages towards Malaysian youths in particular.”
Munira said that organised recruitment is not always the primary driver behind youth radicalisation.
“We should be cautious about assuming a centralised IS apparatus is actively recruiting these youths,” she said.
“IS material doesn’t need to be actively pushed. In an environment where IS remains a prominent reference point in public discourse, curiosity alone can become an entry point.”
She said adolescents may encounter extremist narratives independently and use them to frame anxieties or frustrations they were already experiencing.
“The more likely picture is adolescents who have found ideological scaffolding for anxieties that were already forming,” she said.
“The content they’re consuming is animating grievances that exist independently of any organised group.”
Platforms as tools
Based on the arrest of the six individuals, the authorities have also pointed to messaging applications or gaming platforms as potential recruitment tools.
But Munira said focusing too heavily on technology risks overlooking deeper social conditions that shape youth vulnerability.
“In my opinion, the platforms matter less than the conditions that made these young people receptive in the first place,” she said.
“Whether it’s gaming platforms, Telegram, or any other social media, these are pragmatic actors using whatever is accessible to mobilise.
“Focusing on the delivery mechanism distracts us from the harder question of why the message is landing.”
Is this an emerging pattern?
Andrin, citing Europe as an example, indicated that gaming is widely used for self-glorification and radicalisation.
“However, we are seeing it differently in the SEA region especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, Philippines and Southern Thailand as they do not need these platforms to be radicalised.
“There are enough radical institutions operating in these countries and the majority of radicalised youths may also come from the lower educated class — it does not mean that there is no threat to it — but it is less significant within these countries and similar to the Middle East and Africa.
“Of course, as a country develops the ability to have access to the internet and gaming widens — these gamings are indeed self-glorifications of using a ‘religion’ (Islam) to feel the threat Islam is facing from its enemies,” he said.
Are there warning signs?
According to Andrin, for Malaysia, the issue is not what warning signs parents and teachers should look out for but what education and religious transmission is the family unit teaching and if educators are knowingly supporting or sympathising with the current turmoil on the conflict in Palestine, the Middle East and now in Iran.
“These are politically relevant instead of addressing the signs.
“Signs are general in the psychological framing that even those in Malaysia have been able to identify.
“However, for Malaysia, parents and teachers should be educated in the forms of religious radicalisation.
“Knowing the warning signs of religious indoctrination is the ability to assess youths from becoming or joining Islamist groups,” he said.
Youths who have become indoctrinated, he said especially in Malaysia will show:
- Hatred towards other races in Malaysia although it a multi-racial society
- Addressing Islam as the key religion in Malaysia that other youths are not conforming with
- Hatred towards other religions and those who do not support their ideological beliefs, religious racism that currently exist in Malaysia
- Being in groups of religiously motivated individuals in radical beliefs
- Alienated from the wider liberal groups
- Not wanting to participate in group sports that involve other races or females, from different ethnic or religious backgrounds
“The list can go on but the fact that research in Islamist radicalisation has never been able to identify other forms of pathways in Malaysia does not give one the exact identification methods.
“The normal pathways to Islamic radicalisation by Western scholars are no longer a reality as it is based on a theoretical framing,” he said.
Curiosity turning into something more
Taking this matter seriously, Andrin said the turning point of curiosity switching to dangerous ideological commitment is when parents, educators, religious political groups, radical preachers as well as hate speeches and race issues become relevant in a democratic society where religion supersedes the very foundation of Malaysia’s democratic values.
“The threat is significant when Islam comes into the narratives,” he said.
What to do with warning signs
In general, Andrin said parents and educators should pay attention to warning signs when religious discrimination and race-based issues start to shape the attitudes of these youths, as these can become pathways to radicalisation and support for the Islamist jihadist groups.
While they may not necessarily turn into terrorists, they may begin to sympathise with Islamism and its more radical ideologies.
Munira also said that identifying early signs of radicalisation can be difficult because behavioural changes often develop gradually.
“Parents and educators should pay attention to behavioural shifts that develop over time.
“Early engagement by trusted adults can play a critical role in preventing deeper ideological entrenchment.
“The most effective early response is a trusted adult who is present and genuinely engaged,” Munira said.
