Why Jihad?

Yesterday we wrote of British jihadis - the whys and wherefores thereof. Today Global Post has an article in which authors Timothy Phillips and Nir Eisikovits wrestle with the same question: why?

IS is attractive to young European Muslims not so much because it helps them forget about their poverty, but because it gives them an exciting, meaningful alternative to a life in pursuit of material comfort and economic security.

Young people often long for glorious, violent, absolutist causes to sweep them off their feet and rescue them from what they see as the petty, worthless striving of their parents and those around them. That longing is not limited to young radicalized Muslims. It is a common human impulse we see time and again. IS is not the first movement to tap into the impulse to both feel and be part of something bigger than oneself, which is not always about something positive.

They are latter-day Muslim Crusaders, fighting to reclaim some of the same blood-soaked, barren land their earlier, Christian avatars fought over. And for similar reasons.