Religion is not the primary motivation of suicide bombers


By Riaz Hassan
Daily Star, Lebanon
Friday, September 11, 2009

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=106355#

Suicide bombing attacks have become a weapon of choice among terrorist  groups because of their lethality and ability to cause mayhem and fear. Though they are depressing, the almost-daily news reports of deaths caused  by suicide attacks rarely explain what motivates the attackers. Between 1981 and 2006, 1,200 suicide attacks made up 4 percent of all terrorist attacks in the world and killed 14,599 people, representing 32 percent of  all terrorism-related deaths. The question is, why?


At last, now we have some tangible data to begin addressing the questionThe Suicide Terrorism Database at Flinders University in Australia, the most comprehensive compendium of such information in the world, holds  details on suicide bombings in Iraq, Palestine-Israel, Afghanistan,  Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which together accounted for 90 percent of all  suicide attacks between 1981 and 2006. Analysis of the information  contained therein yields some interesting clues: It is politics more than  religious fanaticism that has led terrorists to blow themselves up.


The evidence from the database largely discredits the common wisdom thatthe personality of suicide bombers and their religion are the principal cause of their actions. It shows that though religion can play a vital  role in the recruitment and motivation of potential future suicide  bombers, their real driving-force is a cocktail of motivations includingpolitics, humiliation, revenge, retaliation and altruism. The  configuration of these motivations is related to the specific  circumstances of the political conflict behind the rise of suicide attacks  in different countries.


On October 4, 2003, the 29-year-old Palestinian lawyer Hanadi Jaradat  exploded her suicide belt in the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, killing 20  people and wounding many more. According to her family, her suicide  mission was in revenge for the killing of her brother and her fiancé by  the Israeli security forces, and in revenge for all the crimes Israel had  perpetrated in the occupied West Bank by killing Palestinians and  expropriating their lands. The main motive for many suicide bombings in Israel is revenge for acts committed by the Israelis.


In September 2007 when American forces raided an Iraqi insurgent camp inthe desert town of Singar near the Syrian border, they discovered  biographies of more than 700 foreign fighters. The Americans were  surprised to find that 137 of them were Libyans and that 52 of these were   from the small Libyan town of Darnah. The reason why so many of Darnah’s  young men had gone to Iraq for suicide missions was not the  global-jihadist ideology, but an explosive mix of desperation, pride,  anger, a sense of powerlessness, local tradition of resistance and  religious fervor. A similar mix of factors is now motivating young  Pashtuns to volunteer for suicide missions in Pakistan and Afghanistan.


Apart from one demographic attribute – that the majority of suicide  bombers tend to be young males – the available evidence has failed to  provide researchers with a stable set of demographic, psychological,  socioeconomic and religious variables that can be causally linked to thesuicide bombers’ personality or their socioeconomic origins. With the  exception of a few cases, their life stories show no apparent connectionbetween violent militant activity and personality disorders.


Typically, most suicide bombers are psychologically normal, deeply  integrated into social networks and emotionally attached to their national  communities. Labels that are randomly attached to the bombers, such as  “mad,” denote an inability to fathom the deeper reasons for their actions,  while also failing to advance our understanding of the causes of the  phenomenon of suicide bombing. Rather, they impede us from discovering its  real nature, purpose and causes.


To explain suicide attacks, understanding the terrorist organization’s  logic is more important than understanding individual motivations. Suicide  bombings have high symbolic value because the willingness of the  perpetrators to die signals their high level of resolve and dedication to  a cause. The bombings serve as symbols of a just struggle, galvanize  popular support, generate financial support for the organization and  become a source of new recruits for future suicide missions.


Suicide bombings serve the interests of the sponsoring organization in two  ways: by coercing an adversary to make concessions, and by giving the  sponsoring organization an advantage over its rival (or rivals) in termsof support from constituencies. Contrary to the popular image that suicide  terrorism is an outcome of irrational religious fanaticism, suicide  bombing attacks are resolutely a politically-motivated phenomenon.


Humiliation, revenge and altruism appear to play a key role at the  organizational and individual levels in shaping the subculture that  promotes suicide bombings. Humiliation is an emotional process that seeks  to discipline the target party’s behavior by attacking and lowering their  own and others’ perceptions of whether they deserve respect.


The actions of the American guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq played  on what it meant to be an honorable, self-respecting subject in Iraqi  society. The disciplinary practices humiliated the prisoners, but were  also felt and seen as humiliating to all Iraqis.


In the months following the release of the Abu Ghraib photos, daily  suicide bombing attacks in Iraq increased dramatically. Similarly,  counterinsurgency operations involving random house searches,  interrogations, arrests and other violations of human dignity were  followed by an increase in suicide attacks.


People tend to have a strong aversion to what they perceive as injusticewith the dark side of this manifested as revenge. One consequence of thedesire for vengeance is an individual’s willingness to endure sacrifice to  fulfill the act. Contemplation of revenge can appear to achieve a range of  goals, including righting perceived injustices, restoring the self-worthof the vengeful individual and deterring future injustice.


Revenge is also a response to the continuous suffering of an aggrieved  community. At the heart of the whole process are perceptions of personalharm, unfairness and injustice, and the anger, indignation, and hatred  associated with such perceptions.


Men tend to attach more value to vengeance than women do, while young  people are more prepared to act in a vengeful manner than older  individuals are. It is not surprising, then, to discover that most suicide  bombers happen to be young males.


The meaning and the nature of suicide in a suicide bombing are strikingly  different from ordinary suicides. Suicide bombing falls into the category  of altruistic suicidal actions that involve valuing one’s life as less  worthy than that of the group’s honor, religion, or some other collective  interest.


Religiously and nationalistically coded attitudes toward acceptance of  death, stemming from long periods of collective suffering, humiliation and  powerlessness, enable political organizations to offer suicide bombings as  an outlet for their people’s feelings of desperation, deprivation,  hostility and injustice.


For the individual, participating in a suicide mission is not about dying  and killing alone; it also has a broader significance for achieving  multiple purposes, from the personal to the communal. These include  gaining community approval and political success; liberating the homeland;  achieving personal redemption or honor; using martyrdom to effect the  survival of the community; refusing to accept subjugation; seeking revenge  for personal and collective humiliation; conveying religious or  nationalistic convictions; expressing guilt, shame, material and religious  rewards; escaping from intolerable everyday degradations of life under  occupation, boredom, anxiety and defiance.


The configuration of these purposes varies and is an outcome of specificcircumstances of the political conflict behind the rise of suicide attacks  as a tactic and a weapon.


The causes of suicide bombings lie not in the realm of individual  psychopathology but in that of broader social conditions. An understanding  and knowledge of these conditions are vital for developing appropriate  policies and responses to protect the public.


Suicide bombings are carried out by motivated individuals who are  associated with community-based organizations. Strategies aimed a finding  ways to induce communities to abandon such support would curtail supportfor terrorist organizations.


Strategies for eliminating, or at least addressing, collective grievances  in tangible and effective ways would have a significant and (in many  cases) immediate impact on alleviating the conditions that nurture the  subculture of suicide bombings. Support for suicide bombing attacks is  unlikely to diminish without real progress in achieving at least some ofthe fundamental goals that suicide bombers and those sponsoring and  supporting them share.


[Riaz Hassan is ARC Professorial Fellow and Emeritus Professor in the  Department of Sociology at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.]


-- Facts are sacred ... but comment is free.

In message <op.u0ambdjkfergpa@debian>, Robin T Cox 
writes
>Religion is not the primary motivation of suicide bombers

That is not "news"

>Between  1981 and 2006, 1,200 suicide attacks made up 4 percent of all
>terrorist  attacks in the world and killed 14,599 people, representing
>32 percent of  all terrorism-related deaths. The question is, why?

That shows that suicide bombs are VERY cost effective. A lot of
terrorists get killed in commission of their acts often before achieving
their objectives. SO for a terrorist who is likely to be killed anyway
a suicide bomb is a more effective solution.

>On October 4, 2003, the 29-year-old Palestinian lawyer

So a well educated and intelligent person. Not a mad fanatic with the
zeal of youth.

>Hanadi Jaradat  exploded her suicide belt in the Maxim restaurant in
>Haifa, killing 20  people and wounding many more. According to her
>family, her suicide  mission was in revenge for the killing of her
>brother and her fiancé by  the Israeli security forces,

Well there is no surprise. Ironically Israeli methods really only leave
open suicide bombing. Which is the most effective form of terrorist
warfare. The Palestinians have little to loose.

> The main motive for many suicide bombings in  Israel is revenge for
>acts committed by the Israelis.

9/11 and the two embassies were likewise suicide bombs for previous acts
committed by the USA.

As I have said many times the methods used by the Israelis and USA
generate more problems and terrorists than they solve.

-- 
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills  Staffs  England     /\/\/\/\/
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Robin T Cox"  wrote in news:op.u0ambdjkfergpa@debian:

> 
> 
> Religion is not the primary motivation of suicide bombers
> 
> 
> By Riaz Hassan
> Daily Star, Lebanon
> Friday, September 11, 2009
> 
> http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_i
> d=106355# 
> 
> Suicide bombing attacks have become a weapon of choice among terrorist  
> groups because of their lethality and ability to cause mayhem and fear. 
> Though they are depressing, the almost-daily news reports of deaths
> caused  by suicide attacks rarely explain what motivates the attackers.
> Between  1981 and 2006, 1,200 suicide attacks made up 4 percent of all
> terrorist  attacks in the world and killed 14,599 people, representing
> 32 percent of  all terrorism-related deaths. The question is, why?
> 
> 
> At last, now we have some tangible data to begin addressing the
> question.  The Suicide Terrorism Database at Flinders University in
> Australia, the  most comprehensive compendium of such information in the
> world, holds  details on suicide bombings in Iraq, Palestine-Israel,
> Afghanistan,  Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which together accounted for 90
> percent of all  suicide attacks between 1981 and 2006. Analysis of the
> information  contained therein yields some interesting clues: It is
> politics more than  religious fanaticism that has led terrorists to blow
> themselves up. 
> 
> 
> The evidence from the database largely discredits the common wisdom that
>  the personality of suicide bombers and their religion are the principal
>  cause of their actions. It shows that though religion can play a vital 
> role in the recruitment and motivation of potential future suicide  
> bombers, their real driving-force is a cocktail of motivations including
>  politics, humiliation, revenge, retaliation and altruism. The  
> configuration of these motivations is related to the specific  
> circumstances of the political conflict behind the rise of suicide
> attacks  in different countries.


Ridiculous conclusion, as to be expected from just about anything posted 
from you.
They would not be seeking to blow themselves and other up in the first 
place if they were not religous extremists promised non stop deviant sex in 
the afterlife.
Take religion [read:ISLAM] out of the equation, "homicide bombings" would 
drop damn near 99%.

In message , Jesse
 writes
>"Robin T Cox"  wrote in news:op.u0ambdjkfergpa@debian:
>
>>
>>
>> Religion is not the primary motivation of suicide bombers
>>
>>
>> By Riaz Hassan
>> Daily Star, Lebanon
>> Friday, September 11, 2009
>>
>> http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_i
>> d=106355#
>>
>> Suicide bombing attacks have become a weapon of choice among terrorist
>> groups because of their lethality and ability to cause mayhem and fear.
>> Though they are depressing, the almost-daily news reports of deaths
>> caused  by suicide attacks rarely explain what motivates the attackers.
>> Between  1981 and 2006, 1,200 suicide attacks made up 4 percent of all
>> terrorist  attacks in the world and killed 14,599 people, representing
>> 32 percent of  all terrorism-related deaths. The question is, why?
>>
>>
>> At last, now we have some tangible data to begin addressing the
>> question.  The Suicide Terrorism Database at Flinders University in
>> Australia, the  most comprehensive compendium of such information in the
>> world, holds  details on suicide bombings in Iraq, Palestine-Israel,
>> Afghanistan,  Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which together accounted for 90
>> percent of all  suicide attacks between 1981 and 2006. Analysis of the
>> information  contained therein yields some interesting clues: It is
>> politics more than  religious fanaticism that has led terrorists to blow
>> themselves up.
>>
>>
>> The evidence from the database largely discredits the common wisdom that
>>  the personality of suicide bombers and their religion are the principal
>>  cause of their actions. It shows that though religion can play a vital
>> role in the recruitment and motivation of potential future suicide
>> bombers, their real driving-force is a cocktail of motivations including
>>  politics, humiliation, revenge, retaliation and altruism. The
>> configuration of these motivations is related to the specific
>> circumstances of the political conflict behind the rise of suicide
>> attacks  in different countries.
>
>
>Ridiculous conclusion, as to be expected from just about anything posted
>from you.

Well the evidence does back him up.

>They would not be seeking to blow themselves and other up in the first
>place if they were not religous extremists promised non stop deviant sex in
>the afterlife.

Sorry but that is pure propaganda and not true.  It is the situation
people find themselves in causes suicide bombs not the religion.

BTW where does it say that a suicide bomber will get non-stop deviant
sex? Or in fact any sex? Lets see the evidence of that. Where inthe
Koran does it say that?

>Take religion [read:ISLAM] out of the equation, "homicide bombings" would
>drop damn near 99%.

The bombing would continue with or without Islam. It is just a
convenient rallying point for both sides.
-- 
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills  Staffs  England     /\/\/\/\/
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/