'Yes, I am a terrorist', texts missing Kerala man

KOZHIKODE: “People may call me a terrorist. If fighting in the path of Allah is terrorism, yes I am a terrorist (sic),” reads a message sent by one of the missing Kerala youngsters to his family.Mohammad Marwan is among 15 youths from the state who are suspected to have joined the so-called Islamic State (IS). The message was sent via the Telegram app in the last week of June. Though the youth claims that he sent the message from territory under the terror group’s control in West Asia, intelligence agencies have not yet confirmed whether the youth is actually there.In the message, Marwan promises he will come back after he “finishes work with IS to help the persecuted Muslims in Kashmir, Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar”. “Here, Muslims, including little children, are killed in the bomb attack by the US and Russian forces. How can I sit comfortably at home when the Muslim ummah (community) is attacked (sic) ,” he wrote.Quoting the Quran, Marwan said, “Allah will ask what I was doing when the community was being persecuted”. “Didn’t the Prophet taught (sic) us that the entire ummah is like one body? It is my religious duty to fight for the protection of the community,” he added.Detailing the situation, he said things “are in bad shape in IS-controlled areas”. “You have facilities like palatial houses, fridge and car, but see the condition of the Muslims here. Here, they don’t have even have electricity as the enemies of Islam have blocked everything. However, the people are contended (sic) and happy as they believe that Allah is with them,” he wrote.The 23-year-old claims to be fully aware of what he is doing. “No one has brainwashed me and recruited me to IS. I decided to leave for fighting for Islam after reading news about the developments in the Islamic State,” he said. He wrote, if killed in the fight for Islam, “I will be treated as a martyr in my after-life”. “The martyr who died fighting for Islam has the privilege of recommending 70 persons (sic) from family to the other world (heaven),” he added. The message ends with the hope that he will be able to come back once the mission is over. “But right now it is a 24-hour war here,” he wrote.Dr Ijaz, another of the missing youngsters, had conveyed similar information in a voice message sent to his family earlier this month.