12:49 am | Posted by Webmaster

Espoo man dies fighting in Syria

The 23-year-old man of Somali background is believed to be the third Finnish citizen to die in the Syrian civil war.

A YOUNG man from Espoo shares a picture in his last Facebook posting: participation in the jihad is equivalent to fifty pilgrimages to Mecca, it says.

Roughly ten days later, on 7 June, the posts of his friends indicate that he, Muhammad (not his real name), has died. “May God accept him,” reads a tweet embedded with a photo of the young man, known by his jihadist name Abu Mansuur Somali.

If the reports of his death are true, Muhammad would be the third Finnish citizen to die in the Syrian civil war.

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) refrained on Monday from confirming the alleged death of the Finnish citizen. “We do know, however, that such information is circulating,” phrased Jyri Rantala, the communications director at Supo.

According to Supo, it is virtually impossible to obtain official information on people who have taken part or died in clashes in Syria.

Muhammad left behind his home in Espoo to travel to Syria in December 2012 unbeknownst to his family. A year ago, his sister told Helsingin Sanomat that he appeared to have no intention of returning to Finland. “It sounded to me like he was being forced to stay there,” the sister said, adding that her brother had sounded “brainwashed” on the phone.

Arshe Said, the chairperson of the Somali League in Finland, heard about the death from Helsingin Sanomat on Monday. “It’s very regrettable that a young man raised and educated in Finland decided to leave to fight elsewhere. This is a serious matter,” Said viewed.

It is important, he underlines, to look into what drives young people to do so.

The Facebook profile of Muhammed indicates that he was a proponent of the notorious Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a militant group the aim of which is to establish an Islamic state in the region.

Other insurgent groups fighting against the administration of Bashar al-Assad do not approve of the actions of ISIS. In fact, even the Syria-based branch of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, is fighting against ISIS.

Yet, ISIS appears to appeal to Finnish jihadists, estimates Juha Saarinen, an assistant researcher at the National Defence College. It is possible, he says, that the three Finns who have died in Syria all fought in the ranks of ISIS.

“The visibility of ISIS is greater in the war-zone than Jabhat al-Nusra. The actions of ISIS are more inconsiderate and typically more barbaric, and its members share visual evidence of that online,” Saarinen says.

“ISIS is fuelled by strong religious dogmatism, whereas Jabhat al-Nusra operates more strategically.”

Saarinen gauges that the visibility of ISIS on the social media may explain its popularity among Western jihadists.

Altogether, an estimated 30—40 people are believed to have left Finland to join the fighting in Syria or otherwise support the cause of the insurgents. Several European countries have expressed their concerns that the fighters may upon their return pose a security threat.

“The fact that 30—40 people have travelled from Finland to Syria is noteworthy. There’s no precedent,” Saarinen acknowledges. “It is difficult to estimate whether or not [the phenomenon] poses a threat. We would have to know more about what motivated them to leave, what they have done in Syria and why they decided to come back.”