The Unseen Terrorist Connection: Exploring Jihadist Links Between Lebanon and Australia

A defining feature of Australian jihadism over the past decade has been the predominant involvement of individuals of Lebanese descent, along with Australian citizens engaging in jihadist activity in Lebanon. This article outlines the separate relevant cases of jihadist activity in Australia and Lebanon, and examines various explanations for this unique situation. It finds long-distance nationalism, target selection, and training locations to be inadequate explanations, despite their utility in other cases where ethnic diaspora associations converge with jihadist activity. The marginalisation and disadvantage faced by Lebanese-Australian Muslims proved to be an influence, but could not account for the difference between the small numbers involved in jihadism and the tens of thousands facing comparable social circumstances. The most direct explanation for this phenomenon proved to be the intimate personal connections between the radical networks straddling the two countries. A network analysis is therefore conducted, distinguishing between operational and social connections, in order to give greater insight into this threat.