根據(jù)一份權(quán)威報告，目前約有4500名西方人離開祖國，加入極端圣戰(zhàn)組織，其中至少有250名美國人。尋求身份認同，是這些西方人參加伊斯蘭圣戰(zhàn)組織的主要原因。

在美國官方確認一對美國夫婦于12月2日在加州圣貝納迪諾的節(jié)日聚會上槍殺14人之后，有一個問題變得日益緊迫：是什么導致西方人加入穆斯林極端組織，比如盤踞在伊拉克和敘利亞的伊斯蘭國（ISIS）？

美國國家安全新聞網(wǎng)站Defense One發(fā)表文章指出，已有專業(yè)市場研究公司對恐怖分子加入極端組織的動機進行了更為完整的總結(jié)。這家名為Quantum Communications的機構(gòu)，位于黎巴嫩貝魯特。他們悉心研究了沙特阿拉伯和伊拉克電視臺對之前和現(xiàn)役極端組織戰(zhàn)士的一對一采訪。

根據(jù)該公司在今年早些時候公布的研究結(jié)果，美國人和其他西方人之所以加入伊斯蘭極端組織，最主要的原因是尋求身份認同。報告稱，在西方文化當中，他們感覺自己是外來者，一直在尋找能夠給他們帶來歸屬感的規(guī)則、結(jié)構(gòu)和群體凝聚力。

這份報告這樣描述“尋求身份認同者”：“歸屬感決定了他們的身份、角色、朋友，以及他們與社會的互動方式?！痹谶@一群體中，有超過60%來自西方，包括美國、法國和英國公民。“在這種情況下，伊斯蘭烏瑪（身份）提供了一種現(xiàn)成的跨國身份。”

該報告將西方的皈依者形容為“自信，孩子氣，別有用心。”在這些“尋找身份認同者”中，有一位22歲，名叫莫納?默罕默德?阿布薩爾哈的佛羅里達人。據(jù)官方消息，2014年，他在敘利亞使用汽車炸彈炸死了自己和其他人。他當時為基地組織的分支“努斯拉陣線”效力。

為了收集人們的動機，這項于2015年完成的研究采用一位加拿大心理學家發(fā)明的心理情境分析法。今年早些時候，負責特別行動/低強度戰(zhàn)爭的美國國防部副部長邁克爾?倫普金向國會作證時曾表示，五角大樓將采用一種類似的框架，偵察和識別本國出生的伊斯蘭恐怖分子。

除了加入極端組織的西方國家公民，這家市場研究公司還研究了電視臺采訪的ISIS支持者，這些人來自敘利亞和伊拉克，以及包括沙特阿拉伯在內(nèi)的其他阿拉伯國家。該公司根據(jù)他們自己所說的加入伊斯蘭極端組織的原因，將其分成9類。除了尋找身份認同者，其他類別包括：

?地位追求者，希望通過金錢和認可，提高社會地位；

?復仇者，同情受到西方壓迫的人；

?尋求救贖者，他們在努力消除以往犯下的罪孽。

?責任追求者，多數(shù)來自戰(zhàn)區(qū)，他們尋找更好的途徑來支持和保護自己的家人；

?尋求刺激者，他們在追求冒險；

?意識形態(tài)追求者，他們希望將伊斯蘭教的觀點強加給他人；

?正義追求者，他們相信他們正在糾正錯誤；

?尋死者，這些人往往在沖突中有親人喪生，現(xiàn)在希望作為烈士死去，而不是自殺。

西方人中更為常見的理由是尋找身份認同，但也不乏尋求刺激者。報告中給出的一個例子是30歲的美國老兵埃里克?哈龍，他在2013年加入敘利亞自由軍，后來死于服藥過量。

來自伊拉克和敘利亞的極端組織戰(zhàn)士，主要是受到金錢和地位的刺激。他們更有可能承認，加入極端組織的理由是養(yǎng)家或者改善家人的生活條件。在被問到為什么加入戰(zhàn)斗時，不論來自西方還是當?shù)氐膽?zhàn)士，最常見的答案是保衛(wèi)遜尼派，參加圣戰(zhàn)。

根據(jù)智庫New America在11月份公布的第二項研究，目前約有4,500名西方人離開祖國加入了極端圣戰(zhàn)組織，其中至少有250名美國人。

當然，這還不包括制造圣貝納迪諾慘案的槍手賽義德?里茲萬?法魯克和他的妻子塔什芬?馬利克，或者2013年波士頓馬拉松爆炸案的兇手塔米爾南?察爾納耶夫和19歲的弟弟焦哈爾。

New America的報告指出，加入伊斯蘭極端組織的西方人中，女性占到了前所未有的比例。在報告研究的474人當中，有七分之一為女性。此外，加入極端組織的西方人均非常年輕，男性和女性的平均年齡僅有24歲。

在New America確認前往敘利亞的23名美國人當中，有9人已經(jīng)喪生，有9人仍逍遙法外，另有5人被監(jiān)禁。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

審校：任文科

After authorities disclosed an American couple killed 14 people at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, December 2, the question has become urgent: What causes Westerners to join Muslim extremist groups, like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)?

A Lebanese market research company says it has coaxed out a more complete profile of their motivations, according to an article in Defense One, a national security news website. The Beirut-based firm Quantum Communications studied televised one-on-one interviews with former and current fighters shown on Saudi and Iraqi channels.

According to the study, released earlier this year, Americans and other Westerners are more likely to be drawn to Islamic extremist groups as they search for identity. They feel like outsiders in Western culture and seek out the rules, structure and cohesiveness of the group to provide them a sense of belonging, the report says.

“Belonging defines them, their role, their friends, and their interaction with society,” as the group of “identity seekers” is described in the report; more than 60 percent of this group was from the West that included U.S. French and British nationals. “In this context the Islamic Ummah (identity) provides a pre-packaged transnational identity.”

The report succinctly describes Western converts as “confident na?fs with an axe to grind.” Among the identity seekers the report identified Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a 22-year-old Florida man who, according to authorities, blew himself and others up using a truck bomb in Syria in 2014. He was fighting with an al-Qaeda splinter organization known as al-Nusra Front.

The 2015 study uses a psy-cho-con-tex-tu-al ana-lyt-ic-al technique developed by a Canadian psychologist to glean people’s motivations. In testimony to Congress earlier this year, Mi-chaelLumpkin, as-sist-ant de-fense sec-ret-ary for spe-cial op-er-a-tions/low-intensity con-flict, said the Pentagon would use a framework similar to that in the Quantum study to analyze, detect and deter homegrown Islamic terrorists.

Besides the Western recruits, the market researcher also studied televised interviews with ISIS supporters from Syria and Iraq as well as other Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia. The firm grouped the fight-ers in-to nine cat-egor-ies, based on why they said they joined Islamic radical groups. Besides identity seekers, the other categories included:

Status seekers who want to improve their social status through money and recognition;

Revenge seekers who identify with those oppressed by the West;

Redemption seekers who are seeking to erase past sins;

Responsibility seekers, most often from the war zone, who are looking to better ways to support and protect their families;

Thrill seekers who are looking for adventure;

Ideology seekers who are looking to impose their view of Islam;

Justice seekers who believe they are righting a wrong; and

Death seekers, who are often people who have lost people in the conflict and now seek to die as martyrs, rather than commit suicide.

A more common reason among Westerners was a search for identity. But a few also were characterized as thrill seekers. An example given by the report was Eric Harroun, a 30-year-old American veteran, who went to fight in Syria in 2013 with the Free Syrian Army. He later died of a drug overdose.

Recruits from Iraq and Syria were much more motivated by money and status. They were far more likely to acknowledge the need to support families or improve their living conditions as reasons. When asked why they were fighting, the most frequent answer given by all the various recruits—whether Western or from the region—was a desire to defend Sunnis and to fight in the name of Jihad.

About 4,500 Westerners—at least 250 of which are Americans—have left their home countries to join up with radical jihadist groups, according to a second study released in November by think tank New America.

That, of course, doesn’t count the San Bernardino shooters, Syed RizwanFarook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, or TamerlanTsarnaev and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar who perpetrated the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon, according to authorities.

The New America report points out that an unprecedented number of these Western recruits are women. Of the 474 studied for the report, one out of seven were women. The recruits—both men and women—also tend to be young with an average age of 24.

Of the 23 Americans identified by New America who reached Syria, nine have died, nine are at large, and five are in custody.