ISIS fighters join because they believe in Islamic Jihad

The argument

Proponents of this position argue that what draws ISIS's international recruits is religious at its core, and that the route by which recruitment happens is what shows it. Many of the Islamic State's ranks, they note, have international origins and are recruited online rather than in person. Many of those recruits are young and are second-generation immigrants who do not speak Arabic, and who feel disconnected from Islam. Supporters of this reading treat that disconnection not as evidence against a religious motive but as the condition that makes one available: a recruit with little grounding of their own has nothing against which to measure the version of the faith being presented to them. What is presented, on this account, arrives as a claim about religious obligation. Potential recruits come across online videos that detail atrocities committed in Syria and glorify violent jihad, and are then asked to join the fight, with recruiters framing the conflict not as a territorial or political quarrel but as a fight to defend Islam as a whole. Proponents argue that this framing converts a distant war into a personal duty: if the faith itself is under attack, then answering is not a choice among competing causes but something a believer is held to owe. The argument holds that the framing is then corroborated from outside. Where anti-Islamic right-wing extremist organisations are active, recruits meet hostility directed at their religion in the places they actually live, which lends the recruiters' premise an apparent confirmation. Feeling on both counts that Islam is under attack, many of these recruits come to regard joining as theologically compelled rather than optional. On this view, what moves them is belief in Islamic jihad as a religious requirement, and religion is therefore the primary factor behind ISIS motivation and recruitment.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The term "'jihad" translates to "to struggle" and is its original meaning is not centered around the use of violence. The Islamic State's theological doctrine and the act of joining ISIS in the name of Islam is against most mainstream Islamic scholarship. Therefore, fighters are being recruited either due to an ignorance of Islam or personal motivations.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Many Muslims would seek to defend Islam only through non-violent means, considering the use of violence as counterproductive.