“To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.”

- Raymond Williams

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi wants to tell people that the Islamic State (IS) threat is real. All I can say is that I have been trying to tell people the same for the past couple of years. The Umno number two also reassured the rakyat that the IS threat “was not a manipulation, publicity stunt or fiction,” which is just goes to show you the level of cynicism of most Malaysians right-thinking folks when it comes to official statements from Putrajaya.

But hang on a minute. The DPM made two extremely cynical statements that only justify the level of cynicism thrown Umno’s way. The first statement, “…the people in the country who joined the militant group did not have strong religious or educational background” and the second "They are people who are frustrated over something which only they know. So this disappointment is translated into a form of escapism."

With regards to the first statement, while it may be true that youths signing up for jihad with IS are disenfranchised in terms of education, nobody could argue that their religious sympathies were anathema to the ideology of IS.