International

From free democracy to violent jihad is a big step. Yet there are in our country young people taking this step. Jihadism evidently provides for a need. A doctrine that explains everything, including your own failings. Why you don’t succeed at school, or at your work. Why your parents don’t understand you, why you became a criminal. An ideology that connects everything you do to something that’s much bigger. Everything you say, what you eat, how you dress, is linked to a huge and eternal right. You can tell your friends your father, or the imam, the truth. You can liberate yourself by sacrificing yourself in a violent struggle.

Fleeing Chinese guards, broken toilets, the UN as 'black-box'. The Mali military mission is no bed of roses. SP Member of Parliament Jasper van Dijk paid a working visit to Dutch soldiers. Below are his impressions.