Why Danes fight jihad in the Middle East

Concluding a three-year field work and interview study with Danish jihadist foreign fighters, Maja Touzari Greenwood, PhD Candidate with DIIS and Centre for the Resolution of International Conflict, Copenhagen University, defends her dissertation on 24 September.

The assessment committee states that: "This is an impressive thesis, theoretically sophisticated and well researched. The thesis covers an important topic that will be of interest not only to scholars working in the fields of international relations, religion, identity and security, but also to professionals and policy makers working on issues of terrorism, integration and ‘radicalization’."

The dissertation presents the story of six men who chose to leave Denmark to become foreign fighters on behalf of Islamist groups in the Middle East during the conflicts that followed in the wake of the revolts that have been termed the ‘Arab Spring’. It is based on a three-year interview and field work study and takes an existentialist perspective to answer the question of what meanings these men ascribe to fighting jihad abroad. To understand the context of these meanings, the analytical view includes their life situations prior to travelling and reflections between journeys, as well as their experience fighting abroad and subsequently return to Denmark. The analysis highlights how the promise of jihad and the experience of fighting resonated with their life situations in ways that made their experience meaningful to them, and includes discussions of agency, ethics, and embodied ways of practicing masculinity. This dissertation argues that fighting jihad offered participants a chance for moral transformation and absolution. Yet, their fighting represented an ambiguous redemption, because the meanings that the journeys have for the participants were negated by the communities and wider society to which they return. This study offers an original contribution to conceptualisations of European jihadism, unique and rare empirical material, and a set of methodological reflections on ways to generate such data in ethically responsible ways.

Assessment committee: Prof. Cecelia Lynch (UCI), Prof. Olivier Roy (EUI), Prof. Karen Lund Petersen (KU)

Supervisors: Prof. Ole Wæver (KU), Dr. Mona Sheikh (DIIS)

Program - 24 September 2018:
14:00 - 14:45 Presentation
15:00 - 16:15 Questions from the Committee
16:15 - 16:30 Questions from the audience
16:30 - 16:50 The Committee deliberates and proclaims its decision
17:00 Reception

Location:
Department of Political Science
University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5
1353 Kbh K, room 4.2.26