WHY INDIVIDUALS BECOME FOREIGN FIGHTERS FOR VIOLENT EXTREMISTS GROUPS One of the most pressing issues, particularly in Western countries, is understanding why individuals become violent extremists.
This is an important question with limited good quality data to inform evidence-based research. Access to violent extremists for qualitative studies is limited and individuals who have joined terrorist groups have done so for vastly different reasons based on their own socio-economic, political and ideological world views. This makes generalisations difficult. What is commonly agreed from the available data is that there is no single ‘terrorist profile’ that can be used to identify at risk individuals reliably.33 Given that radicalisation can happen very quickly, in months or weeks in some cases, countering violent extremism (CVE) needs to take a broad view of risk factors and assess vulnerability accordingly.34
Figure 41 shows the prevalence of four broad motivations developed by USIP to assess individuals that joined al-Qa’ida. These were ‘identity seeking’, ‘revenge seeking/anger’, ‘status seeking’ and ‘thrill seeking’. The most common motivation was ‘identity seeking’. Anger and status seeking followed with 30 and 25 per cent respectively. The thrill seeker accounted for the least at five per cent.37 Interestingly, similar motivations can be found in right-wing extremism where alienation, culture and identity have been found to be contributing factors to membership.38
To understand violent extremism, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) undertook a qualitative study of 2,032 individuals who chose to leave their home countries to fight for al-Qa’ida primarily against the United States and its allies. The sources were primarily drawn from interviews from detainees of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Data was augmented with additional sources such as captured documents, interviews with family or friends and public records.35 The dataset was made entirely of male subjects as very few females were on record for becoming a foreign member of al-Qa’ida.36
FIGURE 41 MOTIVATIONS FOR FOREIGN FIGHTERS JOINING AL-QA’IDA, 2010 Identity was the largest reason that foreign fighters joined al-Qa’ida, followed by anger, status and thrill seeking. 40%
The results of the USIP study found that individuals who chose to travel to fight for al-Qa’ida:
Were not ‘crazy’ or psychopathic — they had made a measured choice to fight for al-Qa’ida. Furthermore, the appeal of groups like al-Qa’ida is that they only recruit the most devout and reliable people. People with anti-social behaviour tend to be unreliable in practice. Were not from one economic profile — some had been long-term unemployed whilst others were from privileged backgrounds.
Had an inadequate understanding of Islam — many were raised in households where faith was routinely practised but was not a dominating force.
Were not approached by al-Qa’ida but rather sought out membership.
30%
PERCENTAGE
20%
10%
0%
Identity seeking
Revenge seeking
Status seeking
Thrill seeking
Source: USIP
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Correlates and Drivers of Terrorism
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