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Troubled Journeys: Some Motivations of Young Muslim Men to Join the Islamic State

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Abstract

Large numbers of young people have joined jihadists groups in the Syrian/Iraqi conflict. Why would these young people decide to become jihadist fighters? What are the representations of the West they hold and how do these representations shape their decision? Drawing on the psychotherapeutic work with Syrian and Iraqi asylum seekers, this paper seeks to explain the most intimate reasons of young Muslim would-be fighters to join the Islamic State militias.

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Correspondence to Kalina Yordanova.

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Address correspondence to: Kalina Yordanova, Ph.D., 19 Shipchenski Prohod, apt 52, 1111 Sofia, Bulgaria.

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Yordanova, K. Troubled Journeys: Some Motivations of Young Muslim Men to Join the Islamic State. Am J Psychoanal 76, 240–254 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-016-9046-5

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