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Malaysian ex-Islamic State member fights for acceptance, a normal life

KUALA LUMPUR — All eyes are on Mr Amin each time he steps out of his wooden house. Villagers speak in hushed tones behind his back.

With an electronic monitoring device strapped around his ankle, former Malaysian Islamic State-member Mr Amin is finding his feet in a new village, where he has found work as a welder. Photo: The Malaysian Insight

With an electronic monitoring device strapped around his ankle, former Malaysian Islamic State-member Mr Amin is finding his feet in a new village, where he has found work as a welder. Photo: The Malaysian Insight

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KUALA LUMPUR — All eyes are on Mr Amin each time he steps out of his wooden house. Villagers speak in hushed tones behind his back.

For it is rare for them to see a man with an EMD (electronic monitoring device) strapped around his ankle, walking about the village in a northern state in Malaysia.

This is the price the 32-year-old Mr Amin is paying for his involvement with the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

The father of two young daughters accepts that he is in for a long, hard battle to be accepted back into society, not so much for his sake as for his wife and his children’s.

“I can take the negative perception that the public, the people around me, have of me. It’s bitter but I can manage.

“But my wife, many times she has come home from the store crying because she could not stand people asking her what I had done,” Mr Amin (not his real name) told The Malaysian Insight.

The Malaysian police have requested that his identity not be disclosed.

Mr Amin was detained without trial for two years, under the Prevention of Crime Act (Poca), for his involvement in IS activity.

He was subsequently sent into exile. He took his family with him, and they are kept under close police supervision.

Mr Amin’s movements are monitored around the clock via the EMD he wears on his leg. He also has to report to the nearest police station every week.

He is one of 2,000 convicted criminals in Malaysia who are electronically monitored. Of these, 22 are offenders convicted of terrorist-linked activities.

This, Mr Amin said, was a small price to pay for a chance to rebuild his life.

Mr Amin was arrested in 2014 after police investigations revealed he had wished to join the IS fight in Syria. He had not been able to go because he could not afford the airfare.

At the time, Mr Amin was finding it difficult to make ends meet as a lorry driver and had decided to return to his village with his wife and children.

He borrowed money from his siblings to buy diapers and milk for his children. He did odd jobs in the village but what he earned was not even enough to buy food for his family.

So when he found out about IS and the money it offered to recruits in Syria, he became interested.

He had been introduced to IS by a religious teacher in his village.

“I thought it was God’s plan to reward me for the hardship I was facing.”

The religious teacher shared with Mr Amin videos showing the cruel treatment of Muslims in Syria.

“These were crimes against women and children. I was filled with hate and anger. I felt pumped up and felt that we should fight back.”

There was a point, he admitted, he even felt hatred for some Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia.

“I was among the first to get involved with IS. At the time we called them ISIS,” he said in using another name for the group.

“We were not asked to take up weapons. We were instead being prepared mentally to join the fight in Syria and that was done subtly, during the chitchat after religious class,” said Mr Amin.

The monetary reward for joining IS was also very tempting, he said.

He was told by his religious teacher that IS paid each recruit a monthly salary of US$300 (S$395.55) and a US$100 child care allowance for each of the recruit’s children.

Mr Amin had to fork out the airfare to Syria for himself and his family and that was what stopped him from joining in the fight.

He knew, however, that he was already in trouble with the authorities for being an IS member.

When the law finally caught up with him, he saw they had a thick file on him.

“I had no Facebook account or any other social media tool, and yet they knew everything about my involvement with IS.

I couldn’t hide anything. I opened up and was sentenced to two years under Poca.”

Mr Amin is now a welder at a workshop near his home. He earns about RM50 (S$16.84) - RM60 daily, enough to fend for his family. It is a better living than what he had when he was first released from detention almost two years ago.

His biggest battle now is for public acceptance.

“Stealing or robbing are crimes everyone can understand. But when it comes to something that has to do with religion, public sensitivity, and terrorism, their perception is different. I have been tagged as someone who has strayed from the religion.

“I have been advised to explain my situation to the community. But when I do, and ask them to help me a better person, they just nod their heads and walk away.”

Mr Amin is among 372 people who have been arrested since 2013 for alleged involvement in IS. Sixty-six of them have been freed. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT

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