| ABOUT US | ARCHIVES | LINKS | RSS FEED | MONDAYS | |

3quarksdaily

An Eclectic Digest of Science, Art and Literature

« Beauty and her beasts | Main | Skeletal Systems »

May 31, 2006

How are young Muslims radicalized on domestic soil?

Steve Coll in The New Yorker:

In a world amply populated with angry young Muslims, it is a question of some interest why a small number choose to become suicide bombers. President Bush addresses the matter in starkly religious language, consigning it to an eternal contest between good and evil. American scholars have begun to attack the problem with scientific method; Robert Pape, of the University of Chicago, for example, recently mustered data to argue that suicide attacks are a rational means by which the weak can humble the strong. To this potpourri of hypotheses can now be added a compelling work by anonymous bureaucrats in Great Britain, under the oddly redundant title “Report of the Official Account of the Bombings in London on 7th July 2005.”

On that summer morning, three young Muslim men blew themselves up on Underground cars, and a fourth immolated himself on a double-decker bus; fifty-two people died, and several hundred suffered injuries. The most striking aspect of the inquiry into the attacks, which was published earlier this month, is the extent to which it plumbs the suicide bombers’ motivations.

The four men depicted in the report are in some respects unfathomable. When Shehzad Tanweer, a talented athlete who was twenty-two years old, bought snacks at a highway convenience store four hours before his death, he haggled over the change. Hasib Hussain, who was eighteen, strode into a McDonald’s just half an hour before he killed himself and thirteen others.

More here.

Posted by Abbas Raza at 04:31 PM | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c562c53ef00d834c5602669e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference How are young Muslims radicalized on domestic soil?:

Comments

I wonder if the mundane actions of the suicidal young men were all that unusual.

People have been known to go through routine rigmaroles in a cool and detached manner before taking the plunge. Umbrellas have been found at the water's edge after suicide by drowning. The Japanese samurais committing hara-kiri, meticulously took their sandals off at the threshold. And I don't remember where I read the anecdote about a farmer facing debt, blowing his head off early one morning in his barn - after he had milked his cows! (may have been Larry McMurtry's Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen.)

Posted by: Ruchira Paul | May 31, 2006 10:13:55 PM

Post a comment






Subscribe to this blog's feed  

3QD ADVERTISING


3QD on Twitter


Miscellany

Lijit Search

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Add to Google


Recent Comments

Louise Gordon on Leszek Kołakowski, 1927-2009

Louise Gordon on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Suraj on India, China and the polemics of the East

Ken Pidcock on Vague Scientist

Elatia Harris on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Vicki Baker on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

billy on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Slocum on The Tipping Point Theory of Racial Segregation: Fascinating but Mythological?

maniza on Why the Left is wrong on Iran

Louise Gordon on Vague Scientist

eli on Vague Scientist

Elatia Harris on Vague Scientist

Abbas Raza on Why the Left is wrong on Iran

Pete Chapman on Vague Scientist

fred lapides on What's the baby sitter up to?

Mike Cope on Thursday Poem

Louise Gordon on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Louise Gordon on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Christopher on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Winfield J. Abbe on Walter Isaacson on Einstein

Louise Gordon on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Dave Ranning on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Dave Ranning on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

billy on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd

Vicki Baker on The Folly of Pretense: Dennett on the "I'm an atheist but..." Crowd


Acclaim For 3QD


"I couldn't tear myself away from 3 Quarks Daily, to the point of neglecting my work. Congratulations on this superb site."—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University.

"I have placed 3 Quarks Daily at the head of my list of web bookmarks."—Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

"Just wanted you to know I’m one of many who reads and enjoys 3 Quarks....almost daily."—David Byrne, musician, former lead-singer of the Talking Heads, artist, intellectual.


The 3QD Prizes

Logo designed by Vicki Winters

Subscribe to this blog's feed