Islamic terrorism

=== Characteristics of terrorists ===

In 2004, a forensic psychiatrist and former foreign service officer, [[Marc Sageman]], made an "intensive study of biographical data on 172 participants in the jihad" in his book ''Understanding Terror Networks''.<ref>Sageman (2004)</ref> He concluded [[social network]]s, the "tight bonds of family and friendship", rather than [[emotional and behavioral disorders]] of "poverty, trauma, madness, [or] ignorance", inspired [[Social alienation|alienated]] young Muslims to join the jihad and kill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14036.html |title=Understanding Terror Networks|author= [[Marc Sageman]]|publisher=Upenn.edu |date=11 September 2001 |access-date=25 April 2010}}</ref>

According to anthropologist [[Scott Atran]], a [[NATO]] researcher studying suicide terrorism, as of 2005, the available evidence contradicts a number of simplistic explanations for the motivations of terrorists, including mental instability, poverty, and feelings of humiliation.<ref name="burke" /> The greatest predictors of [[Suicide attack#Post-1980 attacks|suicide bombings]]—one common type of terror tactic used by Islamic terrorists—turns out to be not religion but group dynamics.
While personal humiliation does not turn out to be a motivation for those attempting to kill civilians, the perception that others with whom one feels a common bond are being humiliated can be a powerful driver for action. "Small-group dynamics involving friends and family that form the [[diaspora]] cell of [[fraternity|brotherhood]] and [[camaraderie]] on which the rising tide of martyrdom actions is based".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ijn_00000676/document |title=The Moral Logic and Growth of Suicide Terrorism |last1=Atran |first1=Scott |pages=138, 144 |journal=The Washington Quarterly, Center for Strategic and Int'l Studies, MIT |year= 2006 |volume= 29 |access-date=26 August 2019 }}</ref> Terrorists, according to Atran, are social beings influenced by social connections and values. Rather than dying "for a cause", they might be said to have died "for each other".<ref name="burke">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/24/scott-atran-talking-to-the-enemy-review|title=Talking to the Enemy by Scott Atran – [book] review|date=23 October 2010|work=The Observer|last1=Burke|first1=Jason|access-date=19 October 2014}}</ref>

In a 2011 doctoral thesis, anthropologist Kyle R. Gibson reviewed three studies documenting 1,208 suicide attacks from 1981 to 2007 and found that countries with higher [[polygyny]] rates correlated with greater production of [[Suicide attack#Suicide terrorism|suicide terrorists]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Harmon|first1=Vanessa|first2=Edin|last2=Mujkic|first3=Catherine|last3=Kaukinen|first4=Henriikka|last4=Weir|title=Causes & Explanations of Suicide Terrorism: A Systematic Review|year=2018|journal=Homeland Security Affairs|publisher=[[Center for Homeland Defense and Security|NPS Center for Homeland Defense and Security]]|volume=25|url=https://www.hsaj.org/articles/14749}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Gibson|first=Kyle R.|title=The Roles of Operational Sex Ratio and Young-Old Ratio in Producing Suicide Attackers|year=2011|publisher=[[University of Utah]]|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260059007}}</ref> Political scientist [[Robert Pape]] has found that among Islamic suicide terrorists, 97 percent were unmarried and 84 percent were male (or if excluding the [[Kurdistan Workers' Party]], 91 percent male),<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pape|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Pape|title=The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism|year=2003|journal=[[American Political Science Review]]|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|volume=97|issue=3|pages=343–361|doi=10.1017/S000305540300073X|hdl=1811/31746|s2cid=1019730|url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/stille/Politics%20Fall%202007/readings%20weeks%206-7/Strategic%20Logic%20of%20Suicide%20Missions.pdf|hdl-access=free}}</ref> while a study conducted by the [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. military]] in [[Iraq]] in 2008 found that suicide bombers were almost always single men without children aged 18 to 30 (with a mean age of 22), and were typically students or employed in [[Blue-collar worker|blue-collar occupations]].<ref>{{cite news|title=U.S. study draws portrait of Iraq bombers|date=15 March 2008|work=[[USA Today]]|publisher=[[Gannett]]|url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-03-15-iraq-study_N.htm|access-date=27 February 2020}}</ref> In addition to noting that countries where polygyny is widely practiced tend to have higher [[List of countries by intentional homicide rate|homicide rates]] and [[Rape statistics|rates of rape]], political scientists [[Valerie M. Hudson]] and Bradley Thayer have argued that because [[Polygyny in Islam|Islam is the only major religious tradition where polygyny is still largely condoned]], the higher degrees of marital inequality in [[Muslim world|Islamic countries]] than most of the world causes them to have larger populations susceptible to suicide terrorism, and that [[Houri|promises of harems of virgins]] for [[Shahid|martyrdom]] serves as a mechanism to mitigate [[In-group and out-group|in-group]] conflict within Islamic countries between alpha and non-alpha males by bringing esteem to the latter's families and redirecting their violence towards out-groups.<ref name="Hudson & Thayer 2010">{{cite journal|last1=Hudson|first1=Valerie M.|author-link1=Valerie M. Hudson|last2=Thayer|first2=Bradley|title=Sex and the Shaheed: Insights from the Life Sciences on Islamic Suicide Terrorism|year=2010|journal=[[International Security (journal)|International Security]]|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|volume=34|issue=4|pages=48–53|jstor=40784561}}</ref>

Along with his research on the [[Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam|Tamil Tigers]], Scott Atran found that [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] terrorist groups (such as [[Hamas]]) provide monthly [[stipend]]s, [[Lump sum|lump-sum payments]], and massive prestige to the families of suicide terrorists.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Atran|first=Scott|author-link=Scott Atran|year=2003|title=Genesis of Suicide Terrorism|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]]|volume=299|issue=5612|pages=1534–1539|doi=10.1126/science.1078854|pmid=12624256 |bibcode=2003Sci...299.1534A |s2cid=12114032 |url=https://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ijn_00509568/file/genesis_of_Suicide_terrorism.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Atran|first=Scott|year=2006|title=The moral logic and growth of suicide terrorism|journal=[[The Washington Quarterly]]|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|volume=29|issue=2|pages=127–147|doi=10.1162/wash.2006.29.2.127|s2cid=154382700 |url=https://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ijn_00000676/file/TWQ06spring_atran.pdf }}</ref> Citing Atran and other anthropological research showing that 99 percent of Palestinian suicide terrorists are male, that 86 percent are unmarried, and that 81 percent have at least six siblings (larger than the average Palestinian family size), cognitive scientist [[Steven Pinker]] argues in ''[[The Better Angels of Our Nature]]'' (2011) that because the families of men in the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip|Gaza]] often cannot afford [[bride price]]s and that many potential brides end up in polygynous marriages, the financial compensation of an act of suicide terrorism can buy enough brides for a man's brothers to have children to make the [[Altruism (biology)|self-sacrifice]] pay off in terms of [[kin selection]] and [[Fitness (biology)|biological fitness]] (with Pinker also citing a famous quotation attributed to evolutionary biologist [[J. B. S. Haldane]] when Haldane quipped that he would not sacrifice his life for his brother but would for "two brothers or eight cousins").<ref>{{cite book|last=Pinker|first=Steven|author-link=Steven Pinker|year=2011|title=The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined|title-link=The Better Angels of Our Nature|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|place=New York|pages=353–358|isbn=978-0143122012}}</ref>

In 2007, scholar [[Olivier Roy (professor)|Olivier Roy]] described the background of the hundreds of ''global'' (as opposed to local) terrorists who were incarcerated or killed and for whom authorities have records, as being surprising in a number of ways: The subjects frequently had a Westernized background; there were few [[Palestinians]], [[Iraqis]], or [[Afghanistan|Afghans]] "coming to avenge what is going on in their country"; there was a lack of religiosity before radicalization through being "born again" in a foreign country; a high percentage of subjects had converted to Islam; their backgrounds were "de-territorialized "—meaning, for example, they were "born in a country, then educated in another country, then go to fight in a third country and take refuge in a fourth country"; and their beliefs about jihad differed from  traditional ones—i.e. they believed jihad to be permanent, global, and "not linked with a specific territory."<ref>{{cite web |title=Olivier Roy Interview (2007): Conversations with History |url=http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people7/Roy/roy07-con5.html |publisher=Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley |date=3 May 2007 |access-date=25 April 2010 |archive-date=15 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715230422/http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people7/Roy/roy07-con5.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Roy believes terrorism/radicalism is "expressed in religious terms" among the terrorists studied because

# most of the radicals have a Muslim background, which makes them open to a process of re-Islamisation ("almost none of them having been pious before entering the process of radicalisation"), and<ref name=roy-inside />
# jihad is "the only cause on the global market". If you kill in silence, it will be reported by the local newspaper; "if you kill yelling 'Allahu Akbar', you are sure to make the national headlines". Other extreme causes—ultra-left or radical ecology are "too bourgeois and intellectual" for the radicals.<ref name=roy-inside />

Author [[Lawrence Wright]] described the characteristic of "[[displacement (psychology)|displacement]]" of members of the most famous Islamic terrorist group, al-Qaeda:

{{blockquote|What the recruits tended to have in common—besides their urbanity, their [[cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] backgrounds, their education, their facility with languages, and their computer skills—was displacement. Most who joined the jihad did so in a country other than the one in which they were reared. They were Algerians living in [[expatriate]] enclaves in France, [[Moroccans]] in Spain, or [[Yemen]]is in Saudi Arabia. Despite their accomplishments, they had little standing in the host societies where they lived.<ref>Wright, ''Loming Tower'' (2006), p. 304</ref>}}

This profile of global Jihadists differs from that found among more recent local Islamist suicide bombers in Afghanistan. According to a 2007 study of 110 suicide bombers by Afghan pathologist Dr. Yusef Yadgari, 80% of the attackers studied had some kind of physical or mental disability. The bombers were also "not celebrated like their counterparts in other Muslim nations. Afghan bombers are not featured on posters or in videos as martyrs."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15276485 |title=Disabled Often Carry Out Afghan Suicide Missions |website=NPR.org |publisher=NPR |access-date=25 April 2010}}</ref> Daniel Byman, a Middle East expert at the [[Brookings Institution]], and Christine Fair, an assistant professor in peace and security studies at [[Georgetown University]], argue that many of the Islamic terrorists are foolish and untrained, perhaps even untrainable, with one in two [[Taliban]] suicide bombers killing only themselves.<ref name="Byman">{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-case-for-calling-them-nitwits/8130/|title=The Case for Calling Them Nitwits|author-link2=C. Christine Fair|date=July–August 2010|work=Atlantic Magazine|first1=Daniel|last1=Byman|author-link1=Daniel Byman|author2=Christine Fair|access-date=8 July 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610213739/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-case-for-calling-them-nitwits/8130|archive-date=10 June 2010}}</ref>

Studying 300 cases of people charged with jihadist terrorism in the United States since 11 September 2001, author [[Peter Bergen]] found the perpetrators were "generally motivated by a mix of factors", including "militant Islamist ideology;" opposition to "American foreign policy in the Muslim world; a need to attach themselves to an ideology or organization that gave them a sense of purpose"; and a "cognitive opening" to militant Islam that often was "precipitated by personal disappointment, like the death of a parent".<ref name="Bergen-15-6-2016">{{cite news|last1=Bergen|first1=Peter|title=Why Do Terrorists Commit Terrorism?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/opinion/why-do-terrorists-commit-terrorism.html|access-date=16 June 2016|work=The New York Times|date=15 June 2016}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2023}}

However, two studies of the background of Muslim terrorists in Europe—one of the UK and one of France—found little connection between religious piety and terrorism among the terrorist rank and file. A "restricted" report of hundreds of case studies by the UK domestic counter-intelligence agency [[MI5]] found that

{{blockquote|[f]ar from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices. Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.<ref name="Travis-20-8-2008" />}}

A 2015 "general portrait" of "the conditions and circumstances" under which people living in France become "Islamic radicals" (terrorists or would-be terrorists) by Olivier Roy (see above) found radicalisation was not an "uprising of a Muslim community that is victim to poverty and racism: only young people join, including converts".<ref name="roy-inside" />