To Jihad and Back Home

Abstract

This thesis theorises a disengagement framework to disengage French individuals engaged with the militant salafi-jihadi movement and criticises the French government’s response to this growing phenomenon. To make sense of disengagement, engagement must first be made sense of. Engagement is examined through Social Movement Theory, especially via incentives, frames, networks, and the repertoire of action. Specifically, this thesis makes sense of why and how French individuals engage with the pan-Islamist movement through the Salafi-quietist and Tabligh movements. Then, it makes sense of French individuals engagement with the militant salafi-jihadi movement, namely, via a focus on the Algerian Groupe Islamique Arm´e, al-Qaeda, and Daesh. The pan-Islamist movement is seen as the phenomenon’s inception: a movement proselytising individuals to turn againstWestern society. While the pan-Islamist movement is non-violent, the militant salafi-jihadi movement is a violent sub-movement. The French government has only responded, since the 1980s, by force towards the militant salafi-jihadi movement but has not responded to the pan-Islamist movement. In fact, some politicians have been reticent to prevent, even criticise, the pan-Islamist movement’s spread. With the phenomenon’s evolution, especially the Syrian jihad, the French government’s hard counter-terrorism approach is inadequately adapted. It has created a soft approach in 2014. Yet, it follows the controversial notion of mental manipulation that neither counter-acts the pan-Islamist movement nor the militant salafi-jihadi movement.

Via the examination of engagement, this thesis can both critically analyse the French hard and soft approaches and uncover lessons for disengagement in the hopes of establishing a disengagement framework. That is, a soft social approach. This is not a social approach through job creation and improvement of socioeconomics. Rather, this is a framework wherein individuals are given the chance to belong and participate into society. That is, they are engaged into the French Social Contract. If needed, disengagement programmes can be included. Overall, this thesis aims at a policy recommendation for the creation of a nationwide disengagement framework and an adaptation of France’s counter-terrorism strategy.