[ExI] suicide killers

[Damien Broderick]

The common view on this list seems to be that such humans are fools 
suckered by primitive religious conviction that they'll get lots of 
sex after death (if they are not actually retarded or obedient 
children). The evidence in this piece suggests otherwise:

<http://indianmuslims.in/defying-the-myths-the-rational-educated-secular-prosperous-suicide-bomber/>

one link therefrom:

<http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv-reviews/suicide-bombers--a-psychological-investigation/2006/03/27/1143330977988.html>

A grab from the top link:

<Does Al-Qaeda conform to the myths?

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812238087/ref=nosim/0sil8>Marc 
Sageman's findings from biographical material from more than 400 
al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists (Sageman, Marc Terror Networks 
(Philadelphia, Penn.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

* The vast majority of terrorists in the sample came from solid 
middle class backgrounds, and its leadership came from the upper class.

* Only 13 percent of terrorists went to madrassahs, and this practice 
was specific to Southeast Asia, where two school masters, Abdullah 
Sungkar and Abu Bakar Baasyir, recruited their best students to form 
the backbone of the Jamaah Islamiyah, the Indonesian al-Qaida 
affiliate. This means that 87 percent of terrorists in the sample had 
a secular education.

* The vast majority of al-Qaida terrorists in the sample came from 
families with very moderate religious beliefs or a completely secular 
outlook. Indeed, 84 percent were radicalized in the West, rather than 
in their countries of origin. Most had come to the West to study, and 
at the time they had no intention of ever becoming terrorists. 
Another 8 percent consisted of Christian converts to Islam, who could 
not have been brainwashed into violence by their culture. [[ha!]]

* About two-thirds of the sample had attended college, a sharp 
contrast with the less than 10 percent of their original communities 
who did so. Despite their education, they did not know much about 
religion; however, many had studied engineering, which made them 
doubly dangerous. Their relative lack of religious education made 
them especially vulnerable to an extreme version of Islam, and they 
had the skills to build bombs.

* Some argue that lack of sexual opportunity for young Muslim men 
transforms their sexual frustration into suicide terrorism to reap 
the rewards of heaven, especially access to the 72 virgins. In fact, 
three-fourths of al-Qaida terrorists are married, and two-thirds of 
them have children (and many children at that). This apparent paradox 
is explained by the fact that they want many children to pursue the 
jihad, while they sacrifice themselves for their cause and comrades.

* About 60 percent of al-Qaida terrorists in the sample have 
professional or semi-professional occupations.

* There was a near total lack of mental disorders in the sample.

* Recruitment into al-Qaida was through friendship and kinship rather 
than dedicated recruiters.>


Damien Broderick