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Accepted Paper:

Do jihadi martyrs really want to die? An emic perspective on the uncertainties of self-sacrifical radicalization in Pakistan  
Amélie Blom (Institut d'études de l'Islam et des Sociétés du Monde Musulman (IISMM-EHESS))

Paper short abstract:

Life stories of former recruits from a Pakistani jihadi militia, suggest that individual motivations, on which most of the available academic works focus, might be less a puzzle than the contingency and uncertainties guiding the social mechanisms of self-sacrificial radicalization.

Paper long abstract:

Using a prosopography based on uncontrollable materials, most academic works on the phenomenon of suicide bombings tend to present a "martyr" who is hyper motivated to die. This contrasts with the life stories of former recruits from a Pakistani jihadi militia, which show that individual motivations might be less a puzzle than the social mechanisms of self-sacrificial radicalization. Three types of mechanisms can then be identified: running away, betting on one's consistency and a quest for organizational framing. This emic approach is also applied to the causes of de-radicalization to suggest, from an "upside-down" perspective, that the act of self-sacrificial violence itself derives neither always from the primary socialization of the militant, nor necessarily from a will to die but, often, from collective techniques of creating consent and individual "absurd decisions".

Panel W008
Certainties and uncertainties of the armed fighter
  Session 1 Thursday 12 July, 2012, -