SLOVENIA: From Conversion to Jihad: Contemporary Janissaries – A Slovenian Case Study
SLOVENIA: From Conversion to Jihad: Contemporary Janissaries – A Slovenian Case Study

Author(s): Simona Hrastnik Čuček
Subject(s): Civil Society, Islam studies, International relations/trade, Security and defense, Studies in violence and power, Radical sociology , Sociology of Religion, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Atlantska inicijativa: Udruženje za promicanje euroatlantskih integracija BiH
Keywords: Slovenia; jihadists; conversion to jihad; Syria; Iraq; conflicts; Middle East; foreign fighters; foreign battlefield; radical Salafi organizations; Islam; radical religious propaganda;
Summary/Abstract: As the Syrian crisis has escalated, Slovenia – like a number of European countries – has faced the departure of volunteers for Middle Eastern battlefields. There has been a growing interest among young members of local radical Salafi associations to engage in jihad, which compelled the first two such departures of young men, both converts, in the summer of 2013. They were followed by a third in October of that same year. The radicalization of these young men occurred very quickly, with less than a year passing between their conversion to Islam and their departures for foreign conflict zones. These cases serve as proof that the radicalization process can be expedited by aggressive religious propaganda, particularly that viewed on the Internet, which keeps adherents up-to-date on and personally invested in the situation in Syria and Iraq. The Internet is also the platform of choice for extremist activities of almost any type that address people in their local languages, as part of an effort to spread propaganda. [...]

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