HOMO JIHADICUS

the militants also can acquire sex slaves (including non-Muslims) – women imprisoned
during the fighting 71 .
The case of Pankisi
One region where the mass departures for Syria are caused mainly by the
social problems is the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, inhabited by about six
to eight thousand Chechens (Kists). The key to understanding why such
a large proportion of Pankisi’s population have participated in the jihad
(100–200 people), aside from the ideological issues, is the difficult economic
situation (a large unemployment rate, the lack of employment outside the
undeveloped agriculture sector), the frustration of young people caused by
it, as well as a severe generation clash (between the Salafi youth and the
older generations). As in the other regions, the departures would not be
possible without the prior development of Salafism in Pankisi. It first appeared
in the region along with a mass influx of the refugees and Chechen
militants looking for refuge from the Russian forces during the second
Chechen war (after 1999). Under their influence, the dynamic process of re-
Chechenisation and Islamisation of the secularised and Georgianised Kists
began (since the beginning of the 19 th century, Kists made up a small community
in Georgia isolated from Chechnya; Islam did not play an important
role there). This process was especially visible among the younger generation.
It was Syria which became the main destination of jihad for Pankisi’s
inhabitants, which was in part caused by the actions of the Russian side
(sealing the Russian-Georgian border by increasing the amount of border
posts, planting land mines along the mountain passes etc.), which made it
virtually impossible for the Kists to participate in the jihad in the Northern
Caucasus. Abandoning the Northern Caucasian jihad also contributed to
weakening the Islamic militancy there and a stabilisation of the situation
in Chechnya during Ramzan Kadyrov’s dictatorship.
7. War as a way of life
For a certain category of those departing to Syria and Iraq it is a continuation
of their previous militant activities. It is true mainly in the case of the “professional”
Chechen militants, for whom war has become a way of life. The choice
71
The issue is discussed (and justified) at length in Islamic State’s online journal – Dabiq (issue
IX), available at: https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/the-islamic-state-e2809cdc481biq-magazine-9e280b3.pdf.
PRACE OSW REPORT OSW 09/2012 09/2015
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