Recent anthropological theories on violence are predominantly concerned with processes of othering in increasingly postmodern societies, analysing how identity may lead to violence. A second approach, however, focuses on the production of social solidarity within violent groups, asking how violence can be constitutive of identity. While the former talks about social purification, sacrifice, diaspora and displacement, the latter highlights the aggressive, transgressive and often ludic practices of perpetrators of violence operating in young male urban cohorts. This article uses both theories in discussing an ethnic–religious movement known to its militants as both ‘fun’ and violent. It analyses how the effervescence of group aggression may lead to ethnocide and martyrdom.