The Jihadist Complex

Abstract

Objective: This is an exploratory review of the literature to map out the characteristics of the jihadist complex as a tool for understanding the conduct better than we do now. I assessed the factors leading to youth disenfranchisement to determine whether they were contributory push factors among the youth that are attracted to jihadist causes. What are the modalities for reducing some of the underlying causes of radicalism in the Sub-region and elsewhere? Method: For the theoretical analyses, I relied on five thematic areas theorized by various security researchers that jihadist radicalism is youthful, that it is built on Islamic religious “narrative”, that they are a disenfranchised rebels without a cause, that they are not empathetic towards the suffering of vulnerable Muslims, that due to these antecedents, radicals are “instrumentalized” by groups such as Al Qaeda or ISIS. Result: The result shows the literature on radicalism, jihadist terrorism is still emerging and suffers from the lack of systematic epidemiologic formulation for the analyses of this social conduct. It appears there is confusion among researchers about whether the terrorist suffers from what can be described as “Jihadist Complex”. Discussion: Jihadism is not an esoteric subject that should elude classification with regards to the behaviors of those engaged in this cause, since there is inherent stratification in the social backgrounds that the jihadists come from Africa, Asia, UK or Germany. Conclusion: To address a social challenge, one has to have the capacity to appraise the cause/effect aspect of the challenge on a given person or a group thereof. Jihadist push and pull factors can be understood and classified just as many human conducts are classifiable.