Both men would consider themselves jihadists, but does that make them terrorists?

The number of Belgian fighters in Syria now exceeds 350. About 30 have been killed; some 25 have returned home. Relatively few who have gone to fight in Syria would qualify as radical Islamists from the outset; most started as idealists. And they come from a wide variety of backgrounds: engineers, unemployed, ex-prisoners, teenagers. Some are simply reckless young men; others are veterans from Afghanistan, Somalia, Bosnia or Iraq.

What most have in common, apart from their wish to help fellow believers, is a disillusionment with the West’s attitude toward Muslims. In Belgium, many Muslims object to the face-veil ban — a heavy-handed measure since only a handful of women wear the veil — when little is done about minorities’ more pressing concerns like discrimination, unemployment and economic deprivation. They are also critical of the West for, as they see it, standing idly by over Syria.