KUALA LUMPUR: The government has admitted that its biggest challenge now is to influence the minds of the people, especially youths.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the challenge was brought about by the easy access to various information, including the unverified.
"The world that we live in today is borderless, a global village where unfiltered information goes straight into our homes and bedrooms.
"Youths are the most vulnerable… It is not about Islam. Suicide bombers and those who have carried out terror attacks, they are not necessarily Islamic.
"Some (youths) are weak and taken advantage of by irresponsible and devious people," he said during a question and answer session at the Kuala Lumpur International Youth Discourse 2017.
Hishammuddin, who is also special functions minister, said soft power approach was the most suitable solution apart from "bombing the existence out” of the Islamic State and killing its leaders.
He said this needed to be done gradually and it was the government's focus to win over the youths.
"What we are doing today, meeting them (the youths), making them realise that this threat is real… no countries out there are safe from this threat," he said.
Hishammuddin reminded the youth that the job of leading and maintaining security and peace was not easy as the world became more complex with times.
"The most difficult task would be to build bridges in a world filled with hate, suspicion, prejudice and divide, and that's the world you will lead in the future," he said.
Every nation, he said, had its own criteria in defining what was good and necessary leadership in managing conflict and confronting security threats.
However, he said one constant was the need for leaders to be clear-headed even when everyone else had lost their mind.
"I still believe that our best days are still ahead of us… Your generation - like the previous ones, is now being called to take up the mantle of keeping the peace.
"It is a difficult responsibility to shoulder but I believe you are all up to the task, you have the energy and ideas unparalleled in the ages past," he said.