Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana sound like typical British young men. They are educated, mad about sport and were raised in a loving family in Cardiff. When, a few days ago, they were seen in an Isil (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) film urging British Muslims to join insurgents in Syria and Iraq, the shock was palpable. How could this have happened? Are their actions symptomatic of religious fundamentalism? Or are they simply an extreme form of youthful angst? After all, one had told his mother before disappearing that he was going to a friend’s house to revise for a maths examination.
For some commentators, these young men represent a crisis unique to British Muslims and are a justification for a further extension of surveillance of Muslim communities. Religious radicalism in the United Kingdom and throughout the world is a serious problem, but blaming religion alone takes us only so far. The problem is much wider. It includes the glamorising of violence: A fascination with armed conflict permeates male sub-cultures, crossing religious, ethnic and class boundaries, while remaining very rooted in masculinity.
At the most general level, there is a quaint assumption in Britain that people there are peaceable, engaging in armed conflicts half-heartedly and only when threatened by aggressors. Their role as perpetrators of violence is often overlooked. There is still considerable reluctance to acknowledge the atrocities committed during the age of the empire. There is a similar reluctance to admit the role British policies have played in creating the political and economic environment that has helped foster terrorism in the Middle East.
However, the problem is more complex. The glamorising of violence and military culture has effects beyond any particular group. It is not unique to young Muslim men or, indeed, young men in Cardiff, to be excited by the prospect of combat. War is often seen as a rite of passage for young men — finally able to prove themselves as adults, not only to their parents but also to their peers. In all armed conflicts, men are heard boasting about the exhilaration of fighting, often neglecting to acknowledge their fears of dying.
This attitude is bolstered by war films, one of the most popular genres. Indeed, for many, war is not hell; it is entertainment. Some of the most popular computer games are based on conflicts in the Middle East. They depict the thrills of battle taking place in “exotic” environments replete with scimitars, camels, caliphs, djinns, deserts, belly dancers, minarets, bazaars and harems. Games such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honor typically cast “insurgents” as faceless, scruffy fighters, in contrast to the clean-shaven, uniformed “good guys” who are fond of cracking jokes and have a strong sense of loyalty to their comrades. Depictions of both “us” and “them” generate a sense of shared excitement and mission. War-play is seen as such an important recruiter for armed groups that Hezbollah has developed its own games, Special Force and Special Force 2, to provide an alternative fighting perspective.
The language used in public to discuss war has become extraordinarily distorted — and not only among radicalised communities. Combat is routinely described in the media as though it were a form of sport: Combatants are “silent hunters” or “duellists”; they “score a try”. Making a kill is a “good shot placement”. Enemy combatants are described as having “received” a bullet. Last year, when the British army introduced a new combat sidearm, the Glock 17, which replaced the long-standing Browning Hi-Power pistol, the weapon was described without any sense of irony, as a “lifesaver”. The people that Glock 17s would maim and kill did not truly possess “lives”.
All this is not to discount the importance of cultural alienation and religion in the decisions of Reyaad and Nasser to join Isil. Clearly, faith and ideology are important. It is to point out, however, that they have been influenced by wider cultural forces that valorise militarism. These effects should be discussed alongside other contributing factors.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
