RSIS Seminar Series on Muslim Societies in Asia by Mr Mubin S Khan, Special Correspondent, New Age

Lecture Abstract

The ability of Islamic extremists to recruit members and volunteers from a seemingly disparate range of nationalities, backgrounds, age and gender, who have nothing but the Islamic faith in common, have left most experts and commentators in the world dumbfounded. In his capacity as a journalist covering issues of terrorism as well as a young man of the Muslim faith, Mr Khan talks about how the very act of narrowly identifying a young man or a woman as a Muslim contributes in many ways to the expansion of such phenomenon, rather than containing it. With a focus on Bangladesh, the speaker will assess the extent to which the political and socio-economic factors, as well the faith itself, play a role in the recruitment of young men.

About the Speaker 

Mubin S Khan is a veteran Bangladesh-based journalist who writes on security, terrorism and human rights. He is the Joint News Editor at a leading Bangladeshi newspaper and regularly contributes to openDemocracy, The Times & Sunday Times and Guardian, based in the UK. Mubin is also adjunct faculty at two universities in Bangladesh. He was a consultant for the International Crisis Group for its report on the criminal justice system in Bangladesh and is also an alumnus of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.