Raad Adayleh/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.In the light of the June
attacks
in Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom has closed
its borders with Syria and continues to imprison its nationals for
terrorism-related charges.
Jordan has already taken steps to
limit the threat from extremists, but without fully understanding the many
reasons why these men have traveled to Syria, effective counter-radicalization
and de-radicalization will not be possible. Furthermore, understanding why
Jordanians fight in Syria sheds light on possible motivations for European
foreign fighters.
Each individual has unique circumstances and beliefs
that drew them to Syria. However, the following is a breakdown of the major
motivations, determined through independent research and expert interviews, that have played some role for many of Jordan's
volunteers. These motivations were determined through analyses of news
reports, scholarly works, and interviews I conducted in Jordan with Salafi
experts and activists.
Broadly speaking, religious
motivations are the primary draw for Jordanian volunteers in Syria. This can be
broken down into its component parts: generally, for the youth, the
desire to create an Islamic State is a prevailing factor. Concurrent to
this desire is the influence of the legacy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi among the
most extreme Salafi Jihadists in Jordan and especially among the youth. For the
older generation of Salafi Jihadists, implementing sharia
law to various degrees is more important than the immediate creation of an
Islamic State. However not every Jordanian Salafist has an interest in entering Syria.
The term 'Salafist' describes a wide range of political and religious beliefs, each with its own
sheikh, or leader. Many Salafists traveled after their specific religious
sheikh issued a fatwa legitimizing jihad in Syria. The initial
wave from Irbid in late 2012 and early 2013 was comprised largely of the
followers of Sheikh al-Tahawi, whose February 2012 fatwa
called for Jordanians to fight in Syria while invoking the legacy of Zarqawi as
the protector of Sunnis. Likewise, many of the volunteers from Ma'an are followers
of the radical preacher Abu Sayyaf.
The wide array of Islamist groups
fighting in Syria allows for movement between groups as identities and
allegiances shift. Each Salafist is likely to have a corresponding group
that espouses their ideology or one similar to it. According to Salafist expert
Dr Mohammad Abu Rumman, this has led some reform Salafists, i.e. Muslim
Brotherhood supporters, who had no history of violent Salafist activities, to
join Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the few organizations willing to accept
non-Syrians.
Yet Jabhat al-Nusra has only
just severed its ties to al-Qaeda and Zawahiri, enabling it to also draw
volunteers from Jordan's older, al-Qaeda-affiliated Salafists. These shifting
allegiances came into effect again when, according to Salafi activist Marwan
Shahadeh, many of Jabhat al-Nusra’s more hardline members deserted and joined
IS after al-Baghdadi announced the establishment of his Islamic State on 29 June 2014.
The sectarian nature
of the conflict and the desire to protect fellow Sunnis is one of the
most, compelling motivations…
For everyone, the sectarian nature
of the conflict and the desire to protect fellow Sunnis is one of the most compelling motivations, if not the most compelling. It is driven by perceived kinship, whether ethnic or religious, as identified in Cerwyn
Moore’s theory of fictive kinship. According to Marwan Shahadeh, some Jordanian Palestinians are
enticed by the desire to fight for Palestine and join other Palestinians in
Syria.
Jordan's settled tribesmen who have volunteered have undergone a process in
which their
tribal identity was surpassed by their newly adopted religious identity.
Thus, the classic social constructs of Jordan’s tribes, where the importance
of religion and the broader Arab community come after the family, clan, and
sheikh, cease to hold the same weight as among nomadic and semi-nomadic
communities.
This has enabled these volunteers to shift their loyalty from their
tribal sheikh, none of whom have called for jihad in Syria, to a Salafi
Jihadist sheikh, such
as Abu Sayyaf, who has issued fatwas on Syria.
Parallel to the desire to protect
fellow Sunnis is the more general desire to fight Assad and end his regime’s
atrocities. However, while this is an underlying factor that surely assisted in
pushing most volunteers to travel, it is probably not the final factor upon
which the decision was made.
At a more tertiary level, economic
incentives may have served to push some wavering volunteers over the edge but cannot be
ascribed as a catch-all motivation, given the high proportion of college degrees among the volunteers and the fact that many were also working in well-paid jobs.
Acting on all of these
factors are two conditions that have served to enhance the appeal of traveling to
Syria:
1) The ease of entering Syria. According to Dr Abu Rumman, a young
Jordanian who was not being monitored by the General Intelligence Directorate could easily board a flight from Amman to Turkey and cross
the border there, and there were plenty of access points along Jordan's
northern border for the older generation of Salafi Jihadists who had more
difficulty moving freely under the watchful eye of the GID.
2) Recruiters
target groups, not individuals. A Jordanian who meets the above prerequisites
and who has friends or family who have gone or are planning on going is more at
risk of volunteering in Syria.
This list is by no
means exhaustive. One broad theory cannot encapsulate every
personal reason why these men and women have left Jordan for Syria. And while the
hierarchy presented here may be unique to Jordan, these motivations exist to
some degree across the world. But if measures are taken to understand the fundamental
motivations behind the mass mobilization of Jordanian volunteers, it may be
possible for effective counter-radicalization and de-radicalization measures to
be taken both in Jordan and the west. It is hoped that Jordan’s
strong state security apparatus combined with support from the United States will allow the kingdom to weather the fallout of the Syrian Civil War.