Becoming a Foreign Fighter: The Agency and Ethics of Fighting Jihad

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.