An atmosphere perceived as hostile to Muslims and strong opinions about world politics are the main reasons Finnish fighters have left to join conflicts in Iraq and Syria, according to new research from Helsinki and Tampere universities.
Researchers Karin Creutz, Marko Juntunen and Juha Saarinen interviewed some 20 people with links to people who had left to fight—but not the fighters themselves. They also collected material from Twitter and Facebook.
They found that marginalisation and hostility towards Muslims were the main factors in radicalisation in Finland.
Creutz, a researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN), and a PhD candidate in sociology at the Department of Social Research, told Yle that religious background seemed to be nearly irrelevant.
“Nobody in our research database is from a very religious family,” she said. “Some are converts and some are from fairly secular Muslim families. This factor plays a really minor role.”
The lack of a forum for open discussion was also problematic, according to researchers, with a lack of trust in Finnish society making it difficult to discuss issues and pushing young people towards extremist groups.
Researchers found that radicalised youth perceive global politics as unjust, and feel a duty to defend people they see as their oppressed Muslim kin. They feel that only Muslims’ actions in conflict areas are condemned, and that the term ‘terrorist’ is defined by western discourses.
“Atmosphere in Finland changed radically in three years”
Researchers also found that experience of racism also helped people decide to leave to fight in the Middle East.
“The interviewees felt that the atmosphere in Finland has changed radically beginning in the early 2000s and especially in the past three years,” notes Creutz. “They feel that nowadays anyone can say absolutely anything on social media.”
The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) estimates that at least 70 people have left Finland to fight in Syria and Iraq between 2012 and 2015.