People who are generally content and well adjusted, emotionally stable, and established in a mainstream ideology are not often recruited into dangerous cults. Dangerous cults focus on generally disenfranchised youth for their recruiting efforts on campuses and in areas where an uneducated mind can be found all over the world. The majority reject such dangerous cults, but some do succumb, and fall prey to different kinds of fanaticism.
Z10, your general hypothesis is that Islamic suicide bombers are mixed up, brainwashed and confused individuals who have somehow strayed from the pack. You have NO facts to back that entire stance and view up no matter how bright you try to come across. You sound like a college debate major who dropped out. Have you welcomed back mytwocents yet? You have a list of all common features? Do you? Besides, it's pretty obvious all these suicide bombers are Muslims. There is no perhaps about it. It is a fact that only an extremely small percentage of those who practice some form of Islam practice blowing themselves up. That does not make them any less representatives of the Islam religion. The religion of Islam is not propagating the belief in suicide bombers. Some radicals may be doing so, but not the religion of Islam. "MAY" be doing so?? You better check the news once in a while, Islamic suicide bombers are killing and wounding people weekly... sometimes daily! There is no proof that all suicide bombers were practicing Islam, or that what religion they did practice was in fact Islam. There's more proof OF it than against it. Due to being dead Muslims there is little chance of establishing a head count by interviewing them. From what is known there is nothing that would indicate that they are not Allah-worshipping scum buckets. They're sure not Italians! The majority of Islamic leaders condemn the practice, Well, some Islamic leaders who have gone on the record say they condemn the practice. Depends who you're referring to as an Islamic leader. My understanding is bin Laden is one of the top "Islamic leaders." You're saying he condemns everything Islamic suicide bombers do. I disagree. What you define as Islam then, is not the Islam practiced or taught by the vast majority of Islam. I would define the beliefs of those who suicide bomb to be anti Islam actually. In all "religions" you have your washouts, and non-practicing adherants though they name themselves of the religion. Then there are those who are more committed followers. Then there are the most diligent believers - in this case Islamic suicide bombers. In each case the same religion is being perfectly portrayed, just in differing degrees or dedication. Billy Graham represents his own beliefs of Christianity, not Christianity itself. Just as not all faithful practitioners of Christianity call themselves "evangelists" and go around preaching the gospel of giving money to their organization (has it ever occurred to you that if you gave the BGEA $100 billion A DAY, year after year after year, BG's message/gospel of giving money to his organization would NEVER change.)... Just as all faithful adherants of the Christian Faith do not walk on water and raise the dead as Christ did... So, ALL faithful Muslims are NOT suicide bombers. It does NOT mean Islam is NOT represented by the ones who bomb. Just as we have seen Christians in Ireland in the past blow people up (Catholic IRA members), the practice of blowing people up is condemned by the Pope himself. ANYONE can CALL themselves a "Christian," it doesn't mean they represent the Christian Faith. The same as the Pope (and his religion) calling himself a follower of Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean it's so. You have the writings of all of these people stating that it was the will of Allah telling them to blow themselves up? Don't need to. Allah is ultimately the leader of the Muslims. You have no evidence. And YOU have no evidence to the contrary. it is clearly shown that there is something other than the religion of Islam at work here. Maybe. Perhaps they blow themselves and others up also because they want their wishes granted. Point doesn't change that it is the Muslim and Islamic adherants doing the suicide bombings. If that were not the case, we would see millions upon millions of Muslims blowing themselves up. They are, just not all at once. They don't have enough bombs. Besides, if they all blew themselves up, there would be no more Islamic religion because all the adherants would be gone and there'd be no one left to bomb the rest of the world in their Islamic religion of revenge. Kind of pointless. Patently false So says you. Hey, you want to support Islamic suicide bombers that's up to you. Just don't ask me to join you. You are a bigot, My finding the acts of Islamic suicide bombers inexplicably deplorable gives me the title of being a "bigot" in your sight? Then I'll gladly be called a "bigot" by you.
Most human beings know better, and many just morally support the passionate causes (Kool aid) that is being passed around, but would not hurt a fly. The missionaries of Jihad are quite good at looking for the disenfranchised, and they exist regardless of the health of their countries and economies. But a lot of these people are not disenfranchised at all. These people are looking for causes, and when they are told over and over and over again that the U.S. and Israel are evil and God is on their side etc., they develop the illusion that they are wronged and disenfranchised. Those are the Attas in the world. The others were juveniles who get recruited by the Islamists in bad neighborhoods and in prison. Another problem is overpopulation in the Muslim world, and stupid economic systems that discourage young Muslim men to do much of anything else other than sit around and froth at the mouth during prayer meetings.
I believe they are mixed up, brainwashed, and confused individuals. That doesn't mean the leaders of these movements are brainwashed, mixed up, nor confused.....but like most politically driven chickenhawks, we don' t see leaders putting themselves in harm's way. That's what they recruit the youth to do. I wager that nearly all of these individuals who engage in bombing, either via suicide or other means, would not appreciate their own family being killed by bombers, or suicide bombers. Therefore, they engage in action they wouldn't want to happen to themselves or their families, they are not doing unto others.... We see devout Muslims world wide, and only a very small percentage engage in extremist unlawful dangerous behavior, so this behavior is not representative of Islam. Your other comments are so illogical they don't deserve a response....
Black and white thinking, "Our God is good and your God is evil" is common worldwide. Labeling an enemy as evil, the practice of demonizing an enemy, is necessary to generate the type of zealousness required for fanatical behavior. Most people have a desire to be good, but an extremist takes this desire to be good, i.e. serve God in a violent manner (Think Crusades, Americans killing Indians, etc.) by killing the "evil" doers. So we have both sides of the conflict labeling the other as evil, which of course leads to the psychological payoff of making them good when they try to destroy the evil ones. If they are evil, then fighting them automatically makes me good and righteous in the eyes of God. A balanced reasonable person knows that we all have some good and bad in us, that we are neither all good nor all evil. Extremist thinkers generate this demon (The evil) and instill feelings of Godliness (The good) in their zealous followers. Fanaticism is practiced by cult like organizations worldwide, where reason and common sense are replaced with an other worldly effort to fulfill a political cause.
I've said this before, but a lot of African-Americans assumed Arab names and converted to Islam as part of the trendy ethnocentric movements going on among minorities "to get back to their roots" in Africa (which is ironic because I think the Islamization and Arabization of Africa happened after the slave trade). Anyway, these people don't even practice the religion.
"Anyway, these people don't even practice the religion." They don't practice "the religion." That's what Catholics say about member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Jews about reformed Jews, etc. How absurd for you to make an evaluation of what people do in the privacy of their homes, minds, and hearts as not practicing "the religion." Reminds me of others here who claim that only the radical fanatics who engage in terrorist acts practice "The real Islam" and moderate peaceful Muslims don't really follow the will of Allah....as if they know what the will of God would actually be..... Hubris, pure and simple.
The same observation has been made about new converts to other religions. Newfound faith seems to lend itself to fanaticism. Martin