Jihadist waves: Syria, the Islamic State, and the changing nature of foreign fighters

Tezcür, Güneş Murat; Besaw, Clayton

doi:10.1177/0738894217738990

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…However, recent events suggest radicalism may comprise a range of rhetorics. The Islamic State, for instance, displayed a fixation with intimate matters (Tezcür and Besaw 2017), including the notorious policing of sexual identity (Saul 2015), women's dress (Callimachi 2016), and smoking (Callimachi 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rhetorics of Radicalism

Karell

Freedman

2019

Am Sociol Rev

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What rhetorics run throughout radical discourse, and why do some gain prominence over others? The scholarship on radicalism largely portrays radical discourse as opposition to powerful ideas and enemies, but radicals often evince great interest in personal and local concerns. To shed light on how radicals use and adopt rhetoric, we analyze an original corpus of more than 23,000 pages produced by Afghan radical groups between 1979 and 2001 using a novel computational abductive approach. We first identify how radicalism not only attacks dominant ideas, actors, and institutions using a rhetoric of subversion, but also how it can use a rhetoric of reversion to urge intimate transformations in morals and behavior. Next, we find evidence that radicals’ networks of support affect the rhetorical mixture they espouse, due to social ties drawing radicals into encounters with backers’ social domains. Our study advances a relational understanding of radical discourse, while also showing how a combination of computational and abductive methods can help theorize and analyze discourses of contention.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rhetorics of Radicalism

Karell

Freedman

2019

Am Sociol Rev

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“…Official sources estimate that, in 2019, 1300 French nationals had travelled to Syria and Iraq, 271 had come back and 314 had died there, 4 making France one of the Western countries with the highest number of ‘foreign fighters’ in this region. Most scholars differentiate between two or three ‘waves’ of ‘foreign fighters’ joining the Islamic State (Tezcür and Besaw, 2020). For Bergema and San (2019), for instance, three periods can be identified: the first peak in 2011–2012 and early 2013 (mostly composed of the ‘inner circles’ of the jihadist networks); the second wave at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 (more diverse, less likely to have been historically involved and smaller); and the third wave in June 2014 (with the proclamation of the ‘Caliphate’).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precarious multiplicity: France, ‘foreign fighters’ and the containment of difference

Mathieu¹

2022

Cooperation and Conflict

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This article investigates the portrayal by French policy-makers of the so-called Islamic State ‘foreign fighters’. I provide an in-depth analysis of the discursive construction of these ‘foreign fighters’ as different and detached from the (French) Self. I do so through a questioning of the notion of multiplicity, revealing how it exists precariously and the consequences this precariousness has on the notion itself. First, multiplicity emerges in ‘strange’ places as identities are being remodelled through new combinations. Second, the coexistence implied by multiplicity needs to be complexified to account for the way it helps preserve but also sometimes erase difference (and thus multiplicity itself). Finally, because of the precariousness of multiplicity, unexpected outcomes can be produced by the encounter with difference (such as the policy of non-repatriation of the ‘foreign fighters’). Overall, multiplicity can be usefully questioned by looking at these instances of instability and doubt. As such, this article shares the concerns expressed by critical scholars that multiplicity recreates problematic distinctions between inside and outside. As a response, my analysis contributes to an understanding of multiplicity as always in the making, revealing how various discursive strategies are used to temporarily and imperfectly stabilise boundaries.

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“…Most of the teachers considered that the Qur'an allowed self-defence in the face of injustices committed against Muslims. Taking into account that some terrorist groups present jihad as a legitimate act of defence against the suffering of the Muslim community (Tezcür and Besaw 2020), it is vital to teach pupils the socio-historical context in which the verses of the Qur'an pertaining to lesser jihad were revealed, as well as the strict conditions that should be met in order to wage jihad in self-defence (De León Azcárate 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Views on Terrorism in the Name of Islam Held by Islamic Religion Teachers in Spain

2020

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Violent radicalisation is currently one of the most pressing global problems. Accordingly, the intention of this paper is to discover the views on terrorism in the name of Islam held by Islamic religion teachers in Spain and to analyse the preventive socio-educational measures that they propose, employing a mixed methods approach with a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Most of the teachers point to a poor knowledge of Islam among the young, especially as regards to the concept of jihad, as the main reason behind this phenomenon. The second-generation immigrants among the teachers attach great importance to possible identity crises as a factor that makes the young more vulnerable to violent radicalisation. The most frequently mentioned social measure is fostering the integration of Muslims, thus creating a sense of belonging to their country of residence. They recommend preventive educational strategies that, far from focusing on detecting possible violent extremists, place the accent on teaching the fundamentals of the Islamic religion in order to provide young people with the tools that they need to challenge violent ideologies.

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Jihadist waves: Syria, the Islamic State, and the changing nature of foreign fighters

Cited by 8 publications

References 42 publications

Rhetorics of Radicalism

Rhetorics of Radicalism

Precarious multiplicity: France, ‘foreign fighters’ and the containment of difference

The Views on Terrorism in the Name of Islam Held by Islamic Religion Teachers in Spain

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