Of Facebook, selfies, jihad and PAS

For years, radical Malaysians have been fighting alongside jihadist militants overseas but they kept a low profile at home to avoid detection by the authorities. Nowadays, some are using social media to flaunt their ‘heroics’.

UNTIL Ustaz Lotfi Ariffin got thrust into the limelight by heading to Syria to wage a war against the Shias in the Syrian civil war, his only claim to fame was being a regular face in the political-religious ceramah circuit in the northern states, especially his home state of Kedah.