Civil Resistance Against Jihadists: How?

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the question of how civil resistance in jihadist proto-states manifests itself. The first part of the chapter explores this question on a sub-national level, presenting new and unique data on a total of 624 protest events against jihadist groups during the Syrian Civil War. It presents descriptive statistics and shows that the responses by the jihadists to these protests varied between outright repression and relatively lenient behavior. The second part of the chapter explores the question from an individual level of analysis, presenting new and unique descriptive data from a survey with residents of Mosul who lived under the Islamic State. It distinguishes between three main types of resistance undertaken by individuals: public action, noncooperation, and everyday resistance. Whereas public forms of resistance were less frequently reported, the majority of respondents engaged in at least some form of noncooperative behavior or a form of everyday resistance.