Subcultures of Humiliation and Counter-Humiliation

Chapter 2 discusses the fact that jihadism cannot be solely attributed to the disaffected young Muslims. A sizeable minority of jihadis consists of converts (from 8 percent to more than 20 percent, according to the European countries), as well as middle-class Muslims. Nevertheless, male disaffected Muslim youth, mostly from the first and the second generations, living chiefly in ghettoized neighborhoods, represent the major part of the jihadis in Europe. They come from at least three types of “slum subculture” which are marked by poverty, humiliation, and discontent. These are: the European slum subculture proper, the subculture of religious introversion (Salafism and Tabligh), and the subculture of violent religious confrontation (jihadism). These themes of poverty, humiliation, and discontent are discussed at length in this chapter and are reflected in interviews presented throughout, which were conducted by the author with some of the young men affected by these conditions. Also discussed are the ways in which secular society and its social freedoms contribute to the frustration and discontent expressed by these individuals.