The portrait of the modern terrorist is a compelling one, and there is shock and surprise that affluent, educated doctors should have been caught with their finger on the detonator. But a story in today’s Times, London, shows why we shouldn’t be:
A study of 172 al Qaida terrorists done four years ago by Marc Sageman, a forensic psychiatrist and former CIA case officer in Pakistan, found that 90 per cent came from a relatively stable, secure background.
Most were from middle-class or upper-class families, and were college educated professionals.
Sageman’s findings, published in 2004 in Understanding Terrorist Networks, led him to conclude that “most of these men were upwardly and geographically mobile”.
He wrote: “Because they were the best and brightest, they were sent abroad to study. They came from moderately religious, caring, middle-class families. They spoke three, four, five, six languages.”
Unlike the lone serial killer, these men functioned well in groups. Indeed, isolated in a foreign country, they depended on a close circle of friends who reinforced their beliefs.
“You could almost say that those least likely to cause harm individually are most likely to do so collectively,” Sageman wrote.
He said yesterday the existence of a terror plot involving doctors should surprise no one. “When you look at global jihad, you have three waves. The first were the companions of Osama bin Laden in the 1980s. The second were the best and brightest from West Asia, who became radicalised in the West. Many of them are engineers and physicians.
“The third are ‘home-grown’, who are second or third generation in the West, and they are less well-educated. Their average age is about 19 or 20, and there are more criminal elements there,” Sageman said.
Ask Sageman to name two likely professions for a second-wave terrorist and he selects “engineers and physicians”.
“What makes people like engineers or physicians try to work for the good of society is the same impulse that makes people sacrifice their lives for the sake of a community, (in this instance) the ummah (the global community of Muslims),” he said.
“Engineers and physicians are far more active in their everyday lives, trying to do things. They’re far more action-oriented than, say, lawyers. You don’t find many lawyers, but you find a lot of engineers and physicians.”
Read the full story here: Profile of a modern militant
No surprise. The pattern is the same if you take similar organizations such as the Provincial IRA, the Baader Meinhof Gang, the ETA, the initial membership (and leadership) of Naxalites in India, Falun Gong, and many, many other Neo-Fascist, Neo-Communist or Radical Fundamentalist organizations.
It is easy and intuitive to believe that poor people can become desperate killers because they have nothing to lose, but that is also not true. They may be the cannon fodder on which guerilla movements and large-scale rebellions are built, but terrorist organizations listed out above have no use for them. It requires intelligence, planning and patience to carry out a terrorist attack. It also requires sufficiently radicalized individuals who can otherwise move about freely in the circles they come to hate. A poor Afghani goatherd is hardly the right person for that job.
‘100 per cent of modern-day terrorists are MUSLIMS and not ANT INDIAN’.
Already hate Indians campain has started in UK & Australia. This is a very sad development.
Ranga,Raviraj Valalmbe Gowda,Doddi Buddi,tarlesubba,prasad,Zulfi.
the same set of people respond. Does all this material reach people who are responsible for all these miss hap.
Good analysis indeed. When you have a secure background and an atmosphere congenial to one’s philosophy, no doubt they make use of it.It is my personal opinion that parents should also keep a watch on their wards activities. After such heinous crimes disowning them will not serve any purpose. Playing with the lives of other people should be outrighly condemned. It takes lot of time to erase these haunting memories.
“Ranga,Raviraj Valalmbe Gowda,Doddi Buddi,tarlesubba,prasad,Zulfi.
the same set of people respond. Does all this material reach people who are responsible for all these miss hap.”
Ranga responds if he can make some contribution. From what you have posted I reckon that you have nothing to contribute but platitudes.
I am not sure what you mean in your second sentence. If you mean that the terrorist docs (who are responsible for ‘miss hap’ as you put it) should be aware of the material like the posting “‘90 per cent of modern-day terrorists are…’, I submit that it is a naive thinking.
I agree with ranga…but the sad develpment is the intolerance of mainstay media percolating into alternative media like blogging…
(dharma Says: July 8th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Ranga,Raviraj Valalmbe Gowda,Doddi Buddi,tarlesubba,prasad,Zulfi.)
for heavens sake do not attack the owners of the comments, but try to understand the comments…and then go for intellectual attack…by writing your own comment…that is, if you have some grey matter between your ears!
You know the funny part of this story is…most terrorists have no religion; but they have ‘Muslim’ names. We sent a Hindu Dheeren Bharat and he was being a Hindu, not very successful at the very thing he was supposed to do. To no avail, he changed his name to a ‘Muslim’ one. But still, no go. I am sure Dheeren must be very pissed off about the unfairness of it all…