FEARING THE WESTERN MUSLIM FOREIGN FIGHTER THE CONNECTION BETWEEN FIGHTING THE DEFENSIVE JIHAD AND TERRORIST ACTIVITY IN THE WEST Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Internationale Betrekkingen in Historisch Perspectief, Universiteit Utrecht. Supervisor: Dr. M.L.L. Segers This thesis has been written as a capstone of the selective MA Internationale Betrekkingen in Historisch Perspectief (International Relations in Historical Perspective) of Utrecht University. A special thanks to my supervisor dr. Mathieu Segers and the external support of prof. dr. Edwin Bakker (Leiden University), to Tom Buitelaar for proofreading it and to everyone who has been of help in the process of researching, writing and editing, including mental support offered by colleagues, friends and family. Utrecht, January 2014 Contact:
[email protected] © Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn ABSTRACT This thesis started with the observation that many Western countries are worried about the high number of Western Muslim foreign fighters currently fighting in Syria. The concern is that these fighters might return radicalised and battle-hardened and decide to mount a terrorist attack. The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent these fighters have indeed been directly involved in jihadist-inspired terrorist plots and attacks in Europe in the past. Instead of presenting a threat assessment of the risk posed by the current fighters, this thesis thus investigated historical examples of Western Muslim foreign fighting. The first approach examined the presence of foreign fighters in the most serious terrorist attacks and plots in Europe between 1994 and 2013 by means of compiling a database.