We recently posed this question to our Atheist Republic Managing Team:

What are your theories as to why the Islamic State and similar groups have been so successful with young people in particular?

Here are their uncensored and unedited responses:

Loli Bite: Social Media has taken my generation by storm. Why make things low key and hush hush, when with a few clicks, I can make an event and invite everyone in my friend list, and they can invite all of their friends on their friend list. Even if they don't want to go, they at least see it. Just a few more clicks, I can share it with groups I'm in, with people from all around the world being able to view it. The Internet has enabled my generation to have such easy access to information, of any type, be it about species of cats, who that one painter was in the 1400's, or read about radical causes. ISIS/ISIL recognized this, something al Qaeda never truly utilized, and took advantage of it. Why bother sending news organizations hostage videos, when you can just upload it to YouTube, for EVERYONE to see. Why would I make an underground newspaper, when I can just fake an IP address and make an almost anonymous website to publish my ideas and ideas of others. Social Media and the Internet enabled all of that, with just a few clicks, and that's terrifying. Hell, most teens and young adults just want to fit in and belong. Dying a hero, a martyr, for your religion? Sounds pretty swell to a few suicidal kids who want to die in a fit of glory. Yet, we can fight back, and we as an organization are doing that, which brings hope for the future.

Kevin Bumgartner: I agree their use of social media is a huge part of it. I'm not some sort of expert on Islam or anything, but I think a large part of their success is due to the fact that they claim to be a caliphate, and if you interpret the Quran strictly, you feel obligated to swear allegiance to a legitimate caliph if one exists. I think the main message that sways people to move to ISIS and fight for them is that they will be denied paradise if they do not. I've said it before, belief in this sort of horse shit is the most legitimate threat to our species.

Dean Van Drasek: Nothing new. Just look at how many upper class Western Europeans, who had been schooled in the Greek Classics, flocked to join the Greeks' rebellion from the Ottoman Turks in 1821-1832. There was also eventual Government support, but many volunteers went (and most came back hopelessly disillusioned, as most of the Greeks they met had never heard of Aristotle...). Nowadays, more people know about the conflict, and transportation is easier, and more people have the funds to make the trip, so more go to the conflict. But its the same thing, the attraction by some types of people (often young or those without an attachment - job or spouse) to danger, adventure and an idealistic cause.

Michael Leamy: According to Elizabeth May, a minor political leader in Canada, it's because people are tired of secular/selfish culture. Her words.

Owen Mills: I think they're so successful for the same reason religion is so successful. They make it sound like it's the ultimate good, which attracts young people. Most young religious people who depend on their religion for everything want to do everything they can for it, even die for it.

Arpan Ahuja: I see a parallel between what happened decades ago with the new generation latching on to socialist ideals. It was a way for them to be relevant to the masses in a more personal way rather than just being a taxpayer.

Of course other factors are at play too here. One of them might be that extremists are always more appealing to minorities rather than majorities. If a group like IS appeared on the map, say in Nigeria, we won't see American and European Christian kids joining up because they don't feel their religion is threatened. But IS attracts Muslim kids from Europe because being in minority they feel the need to protect things that define them as different from majority - their race and their religion. Their race is hardly threatened but they do feel their religion is and maybe that's the reason they are joining up a group that will safeguard the religion not just in a specific region like Taliban but in the whole of Muslim world.

Some other things worth looking into are the economic disparities between Muslims and Christians in the West and also the inherent extremism in Abrahamic faiths which has been overcome in West but is yet to happen in Islam.

How about you? What do you think is the reason young people are attracted to fundamentalist religious groups? Let us know!