Samenvatting

For the past few weeks, young Muslims from Belgium and the Netherlands leaving for Syria to join the armed struggle against the Assad regime have been dominating the local news. This is especially remarkable in light of the fact that it would appear that, until very recently, jihadists from Belgium and the Netherlands were far and few between. The armed struggle is a topic that is widely discussed among young Muslims on social media such as Facebook. During the research on which this article is based, we conducted an analysis of conversations between young Muslims on Facebook and held interviews with a number of them. The key question was: why is it that so many young people use social media to profess their willingness to sacrifice their lives in armed struggle while at the same time most of them are not prepared to put action to their words? Despite all the media reports, the fact remains that of the large number of young Muslims who are potentially ready to go into battle, the vast majority prefer to stay at home for the time being. When we confronted the participants in these discussions with this inconsistency, they offered a number of reasons and considerations as to why martyrdom was not yet granted to them. The way in which these considerations shape their lives and the role played by their religious convictions form the subject of this article.