"The Psychology of Suicide Bombing" - propaganda?

[laura888]

http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/07/interview_with_.html#more

<snip>
Why is this film especially important?

People don't understand the devastating culture behind this unbelievable phenomenon. My film is not politically correct because it addresses the real problem—showing the real face of Islam. It points the finger against a culture of hatred in which the uneducated are brainwashed to a level where their only solution in life becomes to kill themselves and kill others in the name of a God whose word, as transmitted by other men, has became their only certitude.

Are suicide bombers principally motivated by religious conviction?

Yes, it is their only conviction. They don't act to gain a territory or to find freedom or even dignity. They only follow Allah, the supreme judge, and what He tells them to do.


</snip>

A friend of mine is pointing to this documentary as evidence of how cracked up Islam is. I think this is more propaganda to justify our policies.

Can I get your opinion?

[endarkenment]

1. There have been academic studies of suicide bombers

and their motivation, religious beliefs, demographic and sociological categories etc. The results were rather suprising and did not at all fit the stereoptypical view you outline above.

Google the subject sociology of suicide bombers. Here is a good place to start:
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?issue_id=2975

[laura888]

3. thank you! n/t

[neoblues]

4. Interesting...

I posted an account that describes suicide bombers as being basically extremely religiously driven... however, as opposed to the description assumed by the study in your link, it didn't make out like these people were misfits or anything.

Another however, however, my post referred only to the Shi'ite's, who's basic creed is toward martyrdom.

[neoblues]

2. A Similar point of view...

The Shia basically have a martrydom complex; they simply do not think like you or I do.

Shi'ite! Holy Shi'ite!
...
... "Ayatollah Khomeini, the biggest Shi'ite hero of the 20th century, used to preach "Every day is the anniversary of the battle, and every place is Karbala." The inspirational message was: wherever you are, go get yourself massacred. What are you doing sitting around breathing? Why ain't you out there getting slaughtered, you lazy godless bum?" ...
...
... "One thing you can be sure of, if you're an Iraqi Shiite: outrages are like buses, there'll always be another one coming along. When it arrives, they'll get on board, fight us again, lose again, win the propaganda battle again, and come back a little stronger, with more of the Shi'ite poor on their side. After a half dozen lost battles, they'll be so strong we'll be glad to catch the last chopper out of Najaf and let'em martyr each other, instead of paying hundreds of billions"...

of tax dollars...

The source at least reads up on and knows his subjects well, anyone who engages in wars, in history through the current day, be they traditional or guerilla or counterinsurgency or whatever.

There's no doubt that we are dealing with groups of people whose cultures, not to mention religions are really rather foreign to our own, indeed, that should probably say extemely foreign. The language difference alone is extreme. But with the Shia, the difference is shocking. They're usually dirt poor and have high birth rates. In Lebanon, they're they have the highest birth-rate in the south and it's between them and the Sunnis as to who's the most populous... The question of just who is Hezbollah becomes very muddled indeed... as it has to exist with the consent of the people--and I understand it's been pretty much involved in the civil administration for the region for some time (schools, hospitals, etc), thus ingratiating itself further with the people. Some would say it's pretty hard to tell where Hezbollah starts and the people living there stop and vice-versa (as to that, it would make sense that they--Hezbollah--would live where they 'work', but anyway). Regardless of where they are living, whatever fight they get into--suicide bombings are going to be a part of it. It's a no-win proposition... Short of outright expulsion, or genocide, of a whole population, I don't see how such an enemy can be "defeated".

I don't know that the world is ready to answer such questions yet.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Send this link to your "friend"

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=129061&page=1

ABC News: Official: Some Iraqis Forced to Be Bombers

BAGHDAD, July 23, 2004 — It is one of the most frightening forms of violence in Iraq today — dozens of human bombers willing to die for their cause. But Brig. Gen. John Custer, the director of intelligence for Central Command, told ABC News he believes many of the bombers are forced to carry out the attacks.

Custer said there was evidence some bombers were physically chained inside the vehicles used in the attacks.

"What we've found in a number of places are hands chained to a steering wheel," he said. "Up in Irbil, we found a foot roped into the car, unable to escape. Their children were kidnapped and held — they were forced. We've seen faces blown off and been able to identify the perpetrator."

Officials are not certain who is forcing people to do this, but he says the idea that Iraq is being badly infiltrated by outsiders is wrong.


Also remind you friend that no one was being forced to be a suicide bomber in Iraq before the USA took possession of that country.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Here's Robert Pape's research on Hizbollah suicide bombings

This week, world terrorism expert Robert Pape will share with the FBI the findings of his remarkable study of 462 suicide bombings. He concludes that such acts have little to do with religious extremism and that the West must engage politically to halt the relentless slaughter
...
Researching my book, which covered all 462 suicide bombings around the globe, I had colleagues scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and biographies of the Hizbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. We were shocked to find that only eight were Islamic fundamentalists; 27 were from leftist political groups such as the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union; three were Christians, including a female secondary school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.

What these suicide attackers - and their heirs today - shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hizbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.

Previous analyses of suicide terrorism have not had the benefit of a complete survey of all suicide terrorist attacks worldwide. The lack of complete data, together with the fact that many such attacks, including all those against Americans, have been committed by Muslims, has led many in the US to assume that Islamic fundamentalism must be the underlying main cause. This, in turn, has fuelled a belief that anti-American terrorism can be stopped only by wholesale transformation of Muslim societies, which helped create public support of the invasion of Iraq. But study of the phenomenon of suicide terrorism shows that the presumed connection to Islamic fundamentalism is misleading.

There is not the close connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism that many people think. Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist campaigns have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland.
...
· Robert Pape is professor of political studies at the University of Chicago. His book, Dying to Win: Why Suicide Terrorists Do It, will be published in the UK by Gibson Square this month, £18.99

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1838214,00.html

Yes, I think your friend's documentary is propaganda.