European Foreign Fighters in Syria and Virtual Radicalization
The Syrian crisis continues to be a hotbed of international politics and a matter of national security in Europe ever since the emergence of thousands of European fighters who joined Syria’s civil war. The European governments are particularly fran- tic about the prospects of return of their “radical-extremist” rebel citi- zens. Such fears are not unwarranted as many British citizens have already returned home from the Syrian war theatre3. Their alarming return back from the battlefield to European home countries is sending shivers, igniting debate and indignation all across the European establishments. The London-based ‘International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation’ holds that the current mobilization of jihadists in Syria is the most signif- icant phase in comparison to ‘every other instance of foreign fighter mo- bilizations since the Afghanistan war in the 1980s’. The matter is also a hot topic for the European media which regularly pumps fear with the stories of “European suicide bombers” in the ranks of Syrian rebels.
