Abstract
Jihadism brought new actors to the world stage and particularly to the West. These new actors are emerging almost everywhere in the world, except on the Latin American subcontinent, in several small countries, and in Japan. With the arrival of the IE (Islamic State), the multiplication of jihadist actors took place in a quantitative and qualitative way: it started with a few hundred and has already surpassed five thousand in Europe, encompassing new age groups as well.
In a sample of 1,200 individuals who moved from Western countries to Syria and Iraq between 2012 and 2015, 14% are under the age of 18, 27% are between 18 and 21, 26% are between 22 and 25, 17% between 26 and 29, 9% between 30 and 35 and 7% are 36 years-old or above. If we classify as "youth" the age group from 14 to 25 years of age, they represent 67%, or more than two-thirds of the total.
Keywords:
Jihadism; European muslims; Young people of immigrant origin; Western society; Islamic State