One way to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is to attend to the disaffection in the region, said two security experts and a Muslim leader contacted by The Straits Times.

If the unhappiness festers, ISIS will exploit it for recruitment and create divisions in society, they said.

“We do know that foreign jihadists have identified the Rohingya situation in Myanmar as a source of resentment,” said Dr Kumar Ramakrishna from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

… Dr Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said that already, a small number of Rohingya have trained in Indonesia and southern Thailand, and it was “only a matter of time” before ISIS created a cell among these displaced people.