Paper presenters:
- Thomas Hegghammer: “Scandinavian Muslims and the 1980s Afghan jihad”
- Saarinen and Malkki: “The emergence and evolution of jihadism in Finland”
- Maria Garcia Garcia: “The radicalization of Western women: The Swedish and Spanish cases”
- Maja T. Greenwood: “Becoming a foreign fighter? The ethics and agency of religious violence”
Scandinavians in 1980s Afghan Jihad
Thomas Hegghammer, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment
Jihadism is widely believed to have arrived late to Scandinavia, but the phenomenon may be older than assumed. Using previously unstudied primary sources in Arabic, this paper will show that a substantial number of Muslims in Scandinavia were involved in the 1980s Afghan jihad both as foreign fighters and as providers of financial and political support. For example, al‐Jihad magazine, the main mouthpiece of Afghan Arabs, had permanent distributors in the Scandinavian capitals from as early as 1985. The same magazine published many letters to the editor from Scandinavian Muslims, including a “Declaration of support to the Mujahidin from the Scandinavian Muslim Student Society.”
In 1988, an Oslo‐based Islamic magazine sent a correspondent to Peshawar to interview Abdallah Azzam, the spiritual leader of the Afghan Arabs. In 1990, another Arabic jihadi magazine published interviews with two Swedish Muslims, including one convert, who were fighting in Afghanistan. The paper will describe the Scandinavian involvement in detail, seek to identify its first movers, and examine links between the “Afghan Scandinavians” and subsequent jihadi networks in Scandinavia. Preliminary research suggests that some of the patterns observed in the 1990s and 2000s – such as Sweden being the center of gravity for jihadism in the Nordics and certain mosques and organizations playing an outsize role in recruitment – were already visible in the 1980s. These findings are part of a broader body of evidence suggesting that Islamist radicalization in the West started earlier than previously believed.
The emergence and evolution of jihadism in Finland
Juha Saarinen & Leena Malkki, King's College London/University of Helsinki
During the recent years, jihadism in Finland has undergone significant developments, even if the country is still peripheral both in terms of jihadist networks and number of attacks. According to the estimates of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo), over 80 adults and dozens of children travelled to Syria and Iraq during the last five years, mainly to join the Islamic State and other jihadist groups.
Simultaneously, according to Supo, the number of individuals participating in militant activism domestically has increased significantly, doubling from 200 and approximately 400 between 2014 and 2017. As a part of this evolution, Finland has also experienced the emergence of informal extremist networks operating domestically to support jihadi groups operating abroad. Finland has also recently experienced its first ever jihadist terror attack in the forms of a knife attack by a Moroccan asylum-seeker, allegedly inspired by the Islamic State, caused two fatalities and additional eight casualties in Turku.
Yet, despite these developments the phenomenon has received hardly any scholarly attention in the Finnish context. In April 2018 the authors started a research project with the objective of analysing the emergence and evolution of jihadism in Finland, focusing particularly on post-2014 developments. In this conference presentation, the authors will present the project’s aims, methodology, and preliminary findings. The paper focuses on two issues in particular: the underlying causes of jihadism’s growth in Finland, and how the phenomenon has manifested itself and evolved in recent years.
The Radicalisation of Western Women: The Swedish and Spanish cases
María Isabel García García, Instituto Universitario Gutiérrez Mellado
Women have participated in terrorist organizations for decades whether as suicide attackers, recruiters or provided of financial and logistical support despite Islamist ideologies subjugate women and restrict their role in society. Since the self-proclamation of the caliphate in June 2014 the flow of foreigners to Syria and Iraq has been remarkable. About 5,000 of these foreign fighters (FF) originate from Europe and approximately 1,000 of which were women. Sweden has one of the higher per rate, around 90 women left the country, compared to most other European countries, for instance Spain has one of the lowest rate with 21 female.
In this regard, the proposal will try to compare and analyse the motivations of Swedish and Spanish women to be involved with The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and shed light on if there are difference between the two countries. Also, the research will explore the role of gender in radicalisation and the channels and dynamics used by the group to lure women. By understanding the way and the factors beyond the radicalisation of women, researchers could try to shed light on the appropriate measures to prevent violent extremism taking into account gender perspective.
The research will be supported by interviews with professionals in the field and the communities in which radicalisation takes place, from analysis of media reports, from the literature available and, finally, by a prospective research.
Becoming a Foreign Fighter: The Ethics and Agency of Religious Violence
Maja Touzari Greenwood, Danish Institute for International Studies
This paper presents the story of six men who chose to leave Denmark to fight in the Middle East on behalf of Islamist groups during the conflicts that followed in the wake of the revolts that has been termed the ‘Arab Spring’. It is based on four year interview and fieldwork study, and takes an existentialist perspective to answer the question of what meanings they ascribe to fighting abroad, and what it ‘offered’ or ‘solved’ for them that staying at home would not have.
In order to understand such meanings, rather than focus narrowly on the journeys, the analytical view is broadened to include their life situations and reflections prior to and in between travelling, as well as their experience of returning. Doing so highlights how violence was not only a central feature of their journeys, but rather on a continuum with previous experiences of violence in either direct or subtle forms. I argue that fighting abroad represented a way to take control over the role of violence in the participant’s lives in a way that allowed them to reclaim agency, and opened up the possibility of redemption and of considering themselves as ‘good’. Yet, it is an ambiguous way to do so, as the meanings the journeys has for the fighters are negated by society and the communities to which they return.