If one man were to be the face of the barbarity and cruelty that Islamic State (IS) is known for, that man would be Jihadi John, the masked man with the British accent in many of the IS propaganda videos, shown beheading frightened western hostages. He made his ‘debut’ with the execution video of US hostage James Foley back in August last year. Since then, he has been a dark enigma, the question on everyone’s lips being why a UK-bred individual had chosen to join IS in the ravaged conflict zone of Iraq and Syria. Authorities have now identified him as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born UK citizen who has lived in the UK since he was six years old. Apparently, Emwazi has quite a history as far as run-ins with the intelligence agencies are concerned, seeming to have been targeted and accosted by them during his travels to Tanzania and Kuwait. He was on MI5’s watch-list, accused of trying to join the militant group al-Shabab, something Emwazi has always denied. Such harassment and suspicion seem to have made the 27-year-old bitter and jaded with his UK home, maybe one of the reasons why he disappeared into the Syrian wilderness back in 2013. Of course this is no excuse for the kind of coldblooded murderer Emwazi has now become, but there was a turning point in this man’s life. Jihadi John’s case is one that is now becoming all too familiar. Reports suggest that as many as 600 UK citizens may have joined IS in the past one year alone. What is the cause for seemingly privileged individuals to join a draconian, murderous cult? Unfortunately, what many immigrant Muslims, even second or third generation, feel is alienation from a society they belong to, due to discrimination on the basis of their faith or ethnicity. This limits their options and possibilities, frustrating them and turning them against their home societies. The rise in society’s polarisation has isolated many impressionable young Muslims who fall into the hands of clerics and hate preachers in the west, who are recruiters for militant groups like IS. It is a vicious cycle. When the world sees the horror and viciousness with which IS commits its crimes, such as the current kidnapping of dozens of Christians from Syrian villages, it recoils and looks for someone to blame. It sees all Muslims as being complicit in the carnage IS perpetrates. That, too, is a normal human reaction to the savagery of IS’s actions. What needs to happen is reform: reform in attitudes in western countries, reform to curb the hate speech and recruitment going on in some UK and western mosques, and reform to understand that Islam can never justify the likes of IS. *