War and Belonging: A Look at Australia's IS Jihadists

​​​Image via Flickr user Dean Mathers

​On October 21, 17-year-old Abdullah Elmir was seen for the first time in months. Not around his home suburb of Bankstown in Sydney's west, nor in a photo enjoying the fishing trip his mother believed he was on. ​Instead he appeared on YouTube, dressed in military clothing, holding a rifle, and surrounded by dozens of jihadists fighting for the Islamic State (IS or ISIS). In the video, now using the name Abu Khaled, the teenager became yet another western spokesperson for IS propaganda. Over the weekend, it was reported that ​four more Australian men — brothers aged between 17 and 27 — had joined IS ranks.

All of this serves as a timely reminder that western-born men are prepared to sacrifice their homes in order to fight in the Middle Eastern conflict. Many in the public came to rationalise the issue as though these were vulnerable men that had been brainwashed, but the motivators for joining IS vary greatly. While some are using the conflict to play out their fantasies of war glory or radical religion, others, particularly the younger like Elmir, are just looking for a sense of belonging.

Robyn Broadbent, an ​Associate Professor at Victoria University specialising in youth issues, believes western communities have failed to engage Muslim youth leading them to search for that belonging elsewhere, "I would maintain that young people who are connected, that have a job or are at uni, and see themselves having a future wouldn't go, wouldn't just take off like that… We should be concerned about, as a community, those young men that have clearly been caught up in a group and are following a cult. There's no difference, they want to belong somewhere they're being valued."

When you break down the narrative that the Islamic State portrays, and even the way the media reports the group, it's easier to see how young men are enticed. Dr Anne A​ly is one of Australia's foremost academics dealing with counter-terrorism and radicalisation, "It is meant to be attractive, and it's meant to be attractive to young men. It contains elements of this kind of ideological battle that they have not just an ability to contribute to — but an obligation to contribute to".

"There's certainly a romantic element to it and we shouldn't be surprised by that. I mean look at the stories that are iconic even in our society. Not to trivialise it, but look at Star Wars for example: Luke Skywalker is this hero and he fights for the rebellion. Look at Che Guevera for example. There is a romanticised view around going and fighting for the good or the correct way or for those who are struggling… The victim identity and the hero identity are very strong frames to use to motivate action."

It's currently estimated that 60 Australians are in the Middle East fighting for IS, with only a handful of those known to the public. One of the most well known is Khaled Sharrouf who most recently Sharrouf gained global infamy when he tweeted a photo of his seven-year-old son holding a severed h​ead. Sharrouf's violent tendencies were long active while still in Australia where he worked as an extortionist within the construction industry with links to bikie​ gangs including the Comancheros and Hells Angels. Mohammad Ali Baryalei is another Australian aligned with IS, and has been accused of being the gatekeeper of Australians looking to join IS. Most recently Baryalei was allegedly the mastermind behind a foiled plot to behead a member of the pu​blic in Sydney back in September.

Sharrouf and Baryalei can hardly be considered vulnerable youth swayed by a romanticised view of rebellion. Their history with crime organisations speaks more to their motivation than a lack of community engagement does. It's a common theme amongst many IS fighters.

"Really they're a bunch of rag tag thugs you know—a lot of them are people with a criminal past. Even the leader of the previous iteration, which was Al Qaeda in Iraq, had a criminal past—he was a thug. For some of them the crime element is a feeder into the more extreme criminality, which is terrorism", says Dr Aly.

"It's like how marijuana is a feeder into more hard drugs, being a part of a criminal gang and that criminal lifestyle is part of the attraction of IS."

Many IS fighters lived very different lives before taking up radical extremism. Baryalei for example grew up in a moderate Muslim family who came to Australia as refugees. During his twenties he was a wannabe actor and well-known on the scene of Sydney nightclub district King's Cross. There he worked as a spruiker for notorious brothel The Love Machine and reportedly associa​ted with an extensive network of criminals, gangsters, and drug importers. It was the height of this lifestyle that lead to an ideological crisis for Baryalei.

"Many of them become involved in petty criminal or criminal gangs and that lifestyle, that kind of partying lifestyle—and I think what the shift is they start to see that lifestyle as a Western lifestyle… They see themselves becoming too Western in their lifestyle and then that becomes an attraction to swing the pendulum the other way."

"It represents this kind of antithesis of the sheer austerity of a radical Islam, which is very black and white. It's the exact contrast, the exact antithesis of their lives, as gang members, it's all of those things that might then become catalysts for them to seek something else."

While the radicalism that they've approached Islam with is concerning, they're hardly the first people to return to religion loudly. Often the loudest preachers of any faith are not those who have grown up with it but those who have converted or returned to it.

"There is a little bit of, if you like, a born again element to it. You see it all the time with people who become converts to Islam"

But should Islam be considered the overall motivator for joining the Islamic State — after all it is in the name?

"For many of them they know nothing about their religion and they're going there seeking adventure or under the false pretence that they're doing this for religion but they actually have very little knowledge about what their religion actually says about defensive jihad, and the actual religious justification for a group like Islamic State."

Follow Mitch on Twitter: ​@mitchmaxxparker