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Countries With the Most ISIS Fighters

Name the most common countries of origin of terrorists who joined the Islamic State.
According to the Soufan Center, October 2017
Data for three countries comes from an earlier quiz, the source for which is no longer available
Many of these fighters have been killed or have returned home
Quiz by relessness
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Last updated: September 14, 2018
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First submittedNovember 14, 2014
Times taken31,266
Average score71.4%
Rating4.67
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Size
Country
40,000+
Iraq
25,000+
Syria
3,417
Russia
3,244
Saudi Arabia
3,000
Jordan
2,926
Tunisia
Size
Country
1,910
France
1,660
Morocco
1,500
Uzbekistan
1,500
Turkey
1,300
Tajikistan
Size
Country
1,200
China
915
Germany
900
Azerbaijan
890
Lebanon
850
United Kingdom
Size
Country
650
Pakistan
600
Egypt
600
Indonesia
600
Libya
528
Belgium
+8
Level ∞
Sep 14, 2018
Note: The top source only listed "foreign" fighters. I used numbers from an earlier version of this quiz for Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.
+22
Level ∞
Sep 14, 2018
The Chinese fighters are people from the Uyghur ethnic group.
+3
Level 59
Dec 26, 2022
There could also be some people from the Hui ethnoreligious group there
+10
Level 85
Sep 14, 2018
Turkey is double-listed.
+77
Level 90
Sep 14, 2018
That's nobody's business but the Turks.
+10
Level 62
Oct 19, 2018
Been a long time gone
+6
Level 70
Oct 20, 2018
CONSTANTINOPLE
+3
Level 58
Apr 12, 2022
Constantinople is long gone buddy....

The only thing still on sale is Istanbul.

+7
Level 70
Sep 14, 2018
Almighty Erdoğan
+8
Level ∞
Sep 14, 2018
Well crap. Fixed now.
+1
Level 95
Sep 14, 2018
Why did I guessed right 100% but I'm only earning 4 points and not 5?
+3
Level ∞
Sep 14, 2018
I changed the number of questions. You'll get 5 points, but it sometimes takes a few minutes for scoring indexes to get rebuilt.
+29
Level 74
Sep 14, 2018
Yet another reason why Belgium is terrible! :)
+28
Level 89
Sep 15, 2018
The U.S. clearly needs to bomb Belgium.
+50
Level 70
Sep 16, 2018
No, Trump well never do this. "Belgium is a beautiful city"
+13
Level 69
Sep 21, 2018
JUST DON'T HURT THE CHOCOLATE!!
+3
Level 76
Sep 28, 2018
Back to the stone age!!!
+4
Level 88
Oct 19, 2018
Not Belgium, only Antwerp and Molenbeek because that's where they all hold up
+15
Level 76
Sep 18, 2018
Brussels isn't nicknamed "The Heart of Darkness" just for kicks.
+7
Level 69
Sep 21, 2018
Anyplace that gave us that horrible sprouty-named (but not particularly sprouty-LIKE) vegetable is clearly Satan incarnate. (EDITED TO ADD: Although they get a lot of love and leeway from me for their chocolate. Mmmm.)
+24
Level ∞
Oct 19, 2018
You guys get it. Too bad the rest of the world is still blind to Belgium's crimes. When will they learn that 90% of everything that is wrong with the world is because of Belgium!
+2
Level 84
Feb 21, 2019
+1
Level 75
Apr 18, 2023
I'm German and I approve this message.
+3
Level 62
Oct 1, 2020
Why does Jetpunk hate Belgium so much lol. It hurts to read this :( (jk)
+24
Level 71
Sep 15, 2018
Such a pity that many of these people listed are originally refugees (so called) that have been welcomed into a foreign country and benefit from the services and opportunities of these host countries and then........ turn around and join those that would bring those countries down. About the best argument against immigration one could imagine.
+22
Level 89
Sep 15, 2018
Send Melania back.
+7
Level 46
Oct 25, 2018
You send Melania to my house anytime!
+32
Level 82
Oct 19, 2018
Not a very good argument.
+5
Level 61
Oct 19, 2018
Yeah, it's a pretty good one.
+20
Level 70
Oct 19, 2018
It isn't a good argument against immigration. The vast majority of immigrants do not join ISIS. Not letting people leave their country because there is a tiny probability they might subsequently join ISIS (which they might have done anyway) is ridiculous. There are loads of MUCH better arguments against immigration. And they're mostly not even very good.
+2
Level 75
Apr 18, 2023
I have a great idea, let's just let the good immigrants in and keep the bad ones out. Problem solved.
+51
Level 67
Oct 19, 2018
There are 16.3 million immigrants in Germany...915 of them joined ISIS (if you assume every single German ISIS member is an immigrant). That's .0056% of German immigrants. Don't get me wrong. I don't want any country accepting even one ISIS member, but if "the best argument against immigration one could imagine" is that there is a 1-in-20,000 chance they might become a terrorist, then the case against immigration blows.
+6
Level 57
Oct 19, 2018
They never have numbers for how many were already affiliated with terrorist organizations, only the ones they catch going back and returning. They use EU countries like a safe house for leave. Lets not forget that ISIS isn't the only organization these dudes are affiliated with.
+7
Level 67
Oct 19, 2018
I'm not disputing that very bad people come to countries that welcome them and then try to do terrible things, and I understand the importance of strict immigration policies. I was more aggrieved at the appalling logic of "there should be no immigration because an infinitesimal number of immigrants end up being terrorists." Pointing to the absolute worst of any sample size is no way to make a fair assessment of cost vs. benefit. It's just a stupid way to think. I'm not weighing in on the immigration/terrorism debate per se on a quiz website. I was taking issue with the terrible reasoning that Malbaby seemed to think was ironclad.
+1
Level 50
Mar 5, 2024
I think out of the 900 german people, who joined ISIS a big part were also germans. If you look on the most famous ISIS terrorist from germany, no one was a immigrant. (you can search for Pierre Vogel or Dennis Cuspert or Sven Lau and they supporters if you don‘t believe me). I am actually a Muslim( الحمدلله), who studied in germany and I am a shocked at the ignorance of some people here
+1
Level 50
Mar 5, 2024
I also want to add, that ISIS are not Muslims at all. Their actions have nothing to do with islam.The biggest scholars in Islam also declared, that People like Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi are not Muslims, because of heavy sins like the establishment of a caliphate without any permission, numerous rapes and murde of MUSLIMS (mostly Shia or Sufis)

(sorry for my bad english. There is a reason why I rarely comment on Jetpunk)

+16
Level ∞
Oct 19, 2018
Germany could solve this problem by not allowing men age 18-35 as refugees. The vast majority of violence is committed by young men, who also happen to be the largest group of Germany's refugee population.
+2
Level 57
Oct 19, 2018
Military-aged males. Hardly any women, elderly, or children come through unless it's for optics.
+12
Level 60
Oct 20, 2018
18-35 year old men are the largest group because a) they're the most likely to survive the trip and b) because they're considered most likely to be able to secure employment and housing to then bring their families over later. These people aren't arriving by Interrail, it's not an easy journey.
+2
Level 75
Apr 18, 2023
Begs the question though, are these really "refugees", i.e. people fleeing a war or persecution, or are they coming here for entirely different reasons, such as economic ones? With the refugees from Ukraine these days, we see an entirely different picture: few men, many women and children. Exactly what one would expect with people fleeing a war zone.
+9
Level 65
Oct 19, 2018
This is a good argument against blindly accepting refugees without vetting them, but it certainly is not a good argument against immigration.
+5
Level 60
Oct 20, 2018
No-one blindly accepts refugees without vetting them.
+1
Level 66
May 22, 2023
Have you seen the news of the southern border of the USA?
+3
Level 35
Oct 19, 2018
Trying to imagine a chinese dude in a scarf holding an AK in the desert shouting allahu akbar
+2
Level 89
Oct 20, 2018
Buddhahar akhbar would be more likely, but there are a lot of Muslims in China by sheer numbers anyway. And it would probably be "神是最伟大的!"
+8
Level 79
Feb 12, 2020
People from China joining ISIS would not be speaking Mandarin.
+5
Level 71
Oct 19, 2018
There are a LOT of migrants in Belgium from North African muslim countries such as Morocco which accounts for most coming from Belgium.
+1
Level 71
Oct 19, 2018
Can someone explain to me why Russia is so high on this list?
+8
Level 73
Oct 19, 2018
I think it might have something to do with some Chechen jihadists who are battle hardened since the troubles with the rest of the Federation. I remember a particularly horrific hostage situation about a school in Grozny.
+4
Level 60
Oct 20, 2018
A number of Russian states have significant Muslim populations, because Russia's imperial expansion was largely directed at Central Asia - some of these places later became independent, like Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, but there's plenty of others which remain in the Russian Federation - Chechnya, Dagestan, Tatarstan etc.
+2
Level 38
Apr 29, 2021
The incident you're thinking about is probably in the neighbouring region of North Ossetia, in 2004: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege
+1
Level 82
Oct 29, 2018
What those two said, but also look at a map and see how close Russia is to Iraq and Syria. See that part that is almost touching them? That's where Chechnya is.
+2
Level 62
Aug 30, 2019
France, you have a problem...
+1
Level 65
Oct 30, 2019
What about Urzikstan?
+1
Level 74
Feb 12, 2022
And Derkaderkastan!
+1
Level 65
Jan 15, 2024
Thought Absurdistan would surely make the list.
+2
Level 58
Apr 12, 2022
Belgium... HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO GET 528 ISIS FIGHTERS
+3
Level 75
Apr 18, 2023
Visit Antwerp and you know.
+1
Level 67
Apr 3, 2023
Missed Azerbaijan, Lebanon, and Belgium. All crossed my mind but I ran out of time, even Belgium lol. I was trying a bunch of random ones in Europe thinking maybe some of them have a decent chance of being on here
+1
Level 42
Jan 28, 2024
Why are there so many countries in Europe on this list and no USA
+3
Level 28
Feb 18, 2024
1. USA is far from where ISIS was strong.

2. Most Muslims in the USA are educated legal immigrants who are pretty modern and moderate, unlike lots of the ones who go illegally to Europe.

In addition to that, European countries after the WWs had a shortage of workers, so some of these countries imported lots of cheap labor in the past century from some Muslim majority countries. While those migrants were legal, they were poorly educated and had old-fashioned strict mentalities, so they ended up raising children with that mentality. They also lived in poor marginalized communities in segregation from the native society and almost lived in their own separate countries. So those environments were perfect for extremists to promote their ideas.

+1
Level 48
Mar 19, 2024
Well summarised, evo. Could not say it better. Most people are incredibly biased and blame either segregation (=the majority) OR the mentality (=minority). While in fact both are guilty.
+1
Level 48
Mar 19, 2024
It seems only people physically joining in Iraq and Syria count? Not other "provinces" and groups pledging allegiance as a whole but staying on ground in native countries?

I am interested, how the list would look like, if they did. I am sure Nigeria (Book Haram) or Afghanistan and Pakistan (Khorasan province) would appear on the top somewhere between Iraq and Syria themselves. In fact those branches are still active as of 2024.