Fighting for the Cause of Allah: On the Genesis of Jihadist Identities

Abstract

Despite the remarkable quantity and variety of the research on jihadist identities, the state of the research remains disparate and fragmented. That is why the insights gained only insufficiently contribute to a deepening of our understanding of this phenomenon. Such a convergence requires, in a first step, a systematization of the relevant theoretical models and studies. The present contribution takes on this challenge by systematically examining exemplary studies as well as theoretical approaches that have addressed different facets of jihadist identities. On the one hand, a distinction is made between the micro, meso and macro societal levels. On the other hand, different facets of identity at each of these levels are examined.