Southeast Asian Fighters from Islamic State Document Leaks: A Historical Snapshot

Recruits entering territory controlled by ISIS came from a staggering array of nations. Upon arrival, the de facto ISIS border authority asked would-be fighters to complete a questionnaire seeking their personal details and experiences. Much of the resulting data from early-2013 to mid-2014 was eventually leaked by a disillusioned IS member in 2016, and analysts have since pored over the material, identifying trends and characteristics among the foreign fighters. The present article uses part of the dataset that concerns the early wave of Southeast Asians who went to pursue militant jihad in the Middle East. It teases out strands, comparing individual data to what is known from other information, and attempts to situate some of the individuals into their milieu back home. It also contrasts this Southeast Asian data to broader studies of others who entered ISIS territory, and attempts to reach conclusions on what the motivations and characteristics of the Southeast Asians may have been compared to the wider dataset.