HOMO JIHADICUS. Islam in the former USSR and the phenomenon of the post-Soviet militants in Syria and Iraq
HOMO JIHADICUS. Islam in the former USSR and the phenomenon of the post-Soviet militants in Syria and Iraq

Author(s): Maciej Falkowski, Józef Lang
Subject(s): Security and defense, Identity of Collectives, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: The post-Soviet area; former USSR states; Islam; militant Islam; Salafism; Ummah
Summary/Abstract: The post-Soviet area, along with the countries of the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, have become one of the main global exporters of Islamic militants. Currently on the territory of Syria, and to a lesser extent of Iraq, there are several thousands of foreign fighters from the post-Soviet states. The causes of the war migration from the former USSR states to the Middle East have their roots in the dynamic changes taking place inside Islam in the post-Soviet area: primarily the growth of Salafism and militant Islam, as well as the internationalisation and globalisation of the local Islam. The deep political, economic, social and ideological changes which Muslims underwent after the collapse of the USSR, led to the creation of a specific group within them, for which Islam in its radical form became the main element of their identity. Homo sovieticus, without fully eradicating his Soviet part, became Homo jihadicus who not only identifies himself with the global Ummah, but is also ready to leave his country and join jihad beyond its borders in the name of the professed ideas.

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