What Should Be Done to Prevent Young People from Falling into the Trap of Satanism?

There is no doubt that the main responsibility for preventing young people from drifting toward Satanism lies with the family. Families play a crucial role in the shaping of a young person; a dysfunctional family may well help in determining whether a young person is inclined toward Satanism or not. We know that young people from broken or dysfunctional families cannot find the essential love, care, and support from their families, and thus are in danger of becoming interested in Satanism. Parents should take care of their children as a trust from God and be careful about whom they make friends with, where they go, whether they acquire undesirable habits, what time they get home in the evenings, and whether they attend school regularly. It should be remembered that Satanism spreads in our country through young people and cliques. A good friend is also a good example and a bad friend a bad example. Moreover, parents should neither oppress their children, yet nor should they be too permissive. They should try to be their friends at times, while trying to understand them. They should try to fulfill the wishes of their children, if it is for something legitimate or they should dissuade the child when such a desire is wrong. They should remember that their children need both financial and spiritual support and they should look for ways to spiritually satisfy their children.

Many children today complain that they look for happiness outside their families, mostly among their friends, because they cannot find love, support, and happiness in their families. However, it is all but impossible to find happiness outside one’s family and to find the love and support there that one desires from one’s parents in another place, if the parent fails to provide it. It is not enough to provide young people with money. They need love, care, and compassion as much as they need material things. Parents do not do their children any favors if they grant all their wishes, provide them with endless financial means, and leave them free to make their own choices. Parents should know when to say no, restrict certain behavior, and even make children earn their spending money. It seems that some young people have tried everything and have had everything they want in life, leaving only Satanism; therefore, they want to try this too. What all this goes to show is that young people should be brought up in accordance with the realities of life and should learn how to shoulder certain responsibilities. Some families whose children have been trapped by Satanism say that they fulfilled every financial need, but these families never mention what they failed to provide. To put it more clearly, they, for example, begrudge their child, from whom they withhold no material desire, a religious or moral education. The real reason behind the growth of Satanism is a lack of religious education. In addition, certain precautions should be taken, considering the fact that young people who enter such groups are mostly high school students; motives of sex and freedom play an important role in young people joining such groups, and the tendency to prove themselves is especially powerful at these ages. 

School principals and teachers can also play an important role in protecting young people from harmful movements like Satanism. They should regard every student as being entrusted to their safekeeping and should struggle to train them first as a good person and then a good citizen. They should inform the children of harmful movements like Satanism, warn them to stay away from such groups, and help those who have entered them. Educators must have sound information about such subjects in order to teach the students properly. However, they should be very careful when teaching such subjects and avoid making them attractive. Furthermore, the parent-school relationship should be strengthened and students should be prepared for life and future with reciprocal communication.

Officials also play an important role in the proper education of the young people to whom we will entrust our future. The government should not neglect these movements, they should not make the mistake of considering them as marginal. If even just one person goes toward Satanism, then something should be done. Moreover, we observe that Satanism spreads rapidly among youngsters and that no serious precautions have been taken. However, Satanism is not the only harmful movement that sweeps up young people. The sinister country of alternative, harmful movements includes those entrapped by Satanism, but at the same time there are the glue-sniffers in dark corners or in alleyways. We should look after all the young people who have fallen into this dark country and protect them from all harmful movements; nobody can guarantee that today’s glue-sniffer will not become tomorrow’s Satanist. 

Members of the mass media should also take this matter seriously. They should inform people responsibly and with accurate information, sticking to the objective and unbiased principles of journalism. They should not simply regard movements like Satanism as a piece of sensational news, but try to bring forth the real causes that foster the tendency of young people toward such movements. Moreover, they should not ascribe every incident of suicide to Satanism, publicizing the issue by exaggerating it or by putting it on the agenda frequently, making it a matter of curiosity.

On the other hand, parents and institutions should also attend to the youngsters who have been entrapped by Satanism. They should not cast them out or regard them as dangerous people that belong to an eccentric movement, but rather they should try to help them back to the mainstream. They should also look after those who have been prosecuted and those have served a sentence; most youngsters do not know what Satanism is or how dangerous a path it is. If they had known, they probably would not have drifted toward such a movement. If parents perceive that their children are interested in such a movement, they should not try to cover it up in shame, but rather they should bring it out into the open, asking for help from those familiar with the subject or from a psychologist or psychiatrist. Those who see such a tendency in their friends should also look after them and inform the parents and teachers of their friend immediately. If school principals or teachers feel that their students have such a tendency, they should attend to these children, in cooperation with the family. They should not try to cover up the issue, in the fear that it might harm the school’s reputation; nothing is more important than human life.

Research has shown that young people who tend toward Satanism or commit suicide for its sake have little religious faith, having had little or no religious education. This is a reminder of the fact that man is not simply a physical being, but also a spiritual one, a bipolar being. If a person is not spiritually satisfied, they will search for satisfaction in another place, sooner or later, no matter their financial status. This search can sometimes lead down the wrong path; Satanism is the most obvious example.

Unfortunately, the education given in our schools today does not fill this spiritual void. In fact, it is not aimed at doing so. The rapid growth in the number of youngsters who resort to Satanism, drugs, etc. is the most distressing result of this. Similarly, recent research shows that the age for drinking alcohol has dropped to 13, a fact that jeopardizes the future of these young people and consequently of our society. Parents, educators, religious officials, theologians, society, and government officials should make efforts to fill the spiritual void suffered by young people. Whether one has religious beliefs or not, we should provide our people with religious information; the majority of the population in Turkey are Muslim. The support our young people need is only available through proper religious education. If we neglect this issue, a spiritual void will occur. Certain people will exploit this emptiness and the result will be, as in Satanism, that some youngsters will worship inappropriate objects, and even take on the risk of death for their cause.

In fact, Satanism is a phenomenon contrary to human nature, as all monotheistic religions regard Satan as man’s greatest enemy, the representative and promoter of all evil. Satan is neither an object of worship nor does he have a claim to divinity. Moreover, he did not in fact reject God (Qur’an 14:22). This is the very reality that lies under the contradiction and inconsistency of Satanism. There is a creature called Satan and some youngsters worship him and accept the risk of death for his sake. This is an anomaly that should be dealt with seriously. If we had informed our young people about God, the Prophet and Satan, nobody would now be worshipping Satan; Satan is a being that should be avoided and stayed away from. However, it is a sad fact that some of our young people worship Satan, man’s greatest enemy, and in this way they help him to ask for help from his enemy.