The land of the boutique jihad

This year witnessed the tide turn in favour of the beleaguered regime of Bashar Al-Assad, which dealt the rebels a mauling. Unsurprisingly, many foreign fighters have been “martyred” in Syria. Who are they and why do they go to Syria.

One reason is that Syria is the land of the “boutique jihad”. In contrast to the remote and austere battlefields in Afghanistan, Somalia, Mali and northern Nigeria, it is more readily accessible, through Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. It is an advanced society, and travelling to Syria does not engender suspicion because would-be jihadists can enter Syria indirectly through Turkey.

Jihadists from Arab countries go by air to Turkey or Lebanon and then make their way to Syria with the help of intermediaries. Those from countries bordering Syria have only to cross the largely unguarded borders.

The jihadists are overwhelmingly young Sunni Muslim males, socio-economically marginalised either due to lack of education or employment opportunities or cultural identity in western societies. In the case of those from Arab-Muslim countries, the marginalisation is more profoundly socio-economic due to widespread poverty and economic stagnation and also severe political repression by authoritarian governments.  

The number of jihadists from western countries ranges from 600 to 1,000. According to French authorities, some 300 French citizens and residents are fighting in Syria, some of them white. France now sees home-grown jihadists as the greatest internal security threat, with a senior French judge stating that “the actual terrorism will begin as soon as the Assad regime is defeated”.

The German internal security organisation has claimed that 80-100 Germans are in Syria and that 20 jihadists with German passports or residence permits have returned to Germany. Britain is another country that has exported a large number of jihadists to Syria; around 100 are said to have travelled to Syria and some have re-entered Britain. 

The smaller European countries are not exempt. The Dutch intelligence service estimates roughly 100 Dutch citizens are in Syria; Belgian authorities claim that 70 members of outlawed Islamist group Sharia-4Belgium are fighting in Syria. The Swedish intelligence service stated that roughly 30 Swedish jihadists have served in Syria, 18 of whom are immigrants from the Middle East or first-generation Swedish citizens.

The foreign jihadists from Muslim and Middle-Eastern countries include 700 from Jordan. The Jordanians come from the austere and economically-deprived cities of eastern Jordan. Non-Arab Turkey has provided around 50-100 militants, notably in and around Aleppo.

Palestinians have entered the fray in considerable numbers from refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria itself, where there are UN-mandated Palestinian camps.

Recently, more than half the Palestinian camps fell into the hands of jihadists who inculcated a more religious fervour among the inhabitants. The Chechens, a Muslim but non-Arab people without an independent homeland, but with combat experience, have also played a significant role in the Syrian jihad. When the insurgency broke out in Syria, Iraq-based insurgents – many of them Syrians – returned to their home country. They were joined by a contingent of hardened Iraqi jihadists who had fought the Americans in places like Fallujah.  

A number of Lebanese Sunnis have joined the jihad after being radicalised by the growth of militant ideology within a significant Sunni population, particularly in the north of the country. There have also been fighters from Libya and a relatively small influx of foreign jihadists from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. 

The would-be jihadists are recruited from mosques, community clubs or by word of mouth. The recruiters are adept in proselytising skills, which they have honed over several years of jihad. They state and repeat a simple message endlessly: Islam is in danger from the infidel West, from tyrannical and apostate rulers, and from abhorrent deviations from the Islamic religion, namely Shi’ism and the Nusairis or Alawites.

Once in Syria the jihadists are provided with training in explosives and handling small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and then integrated into the fighting units. Many, especially those from western Europe, arrive with considerable enthusiasm but no military experience or training. Some of the westerners were sent back because they were “too weak to participate in the fighting”.

The Syrian war enters its third year in March 2014. The ultimate disposition of all the foreign fighters of the Syrian conflict is likely to make the “Arab Afghan” problem, following the end of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, look like a picnic in comparison.

 

Ahmed S Hashim is an associate professor in the Military Studies Programme at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 

 

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