I read an interesting article that talks about a conference that just took place in Oklahoma (a hotbed of counter-terrorist thinking. Who knew?) Check out the article here
I recommend that you all check out this article, but something interesting that I got from it concerned suicide terrorism. One of the speakers, Robert Pape, of the University of Chicago, noted that most people have this idea that suicide bombing is always motivated by religion. He points out that this is not the case, and that religion is usually not the cause for suicide bombings. He states the one group which uses suicide bombings, the PKK, has Marxist and anti-religion beliefs. Another, the Tamil Tigers, do not have religious motivations. He also says that when Al-Qaeda in Iraq has used suicide bombs, it has been to slow the spread of democracy, not for any religious motivations.
I thought this was an interesting idea because I for one have considered religion a main motivation for suicide bombings, but the actual data proves otherwise.
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This idea of religion not being the root cause of suicide bombing is very interesting. Of course the thing about motivations and causes is hard to completely place. Obviously those non-religious terrorist groups that use suicide bombing are not motivated by religion, but it seems difficult to completely argue that religion is not a root cause of such actions. Causes relative to motivations are so often closely intertwined. I guess I'm not an expert and definitely haven't done the research so I have a hard time legitimately second guessing his research, but it seems a little strong to suggest that religion is not the motivation. In the case of so many of these fanatical religious groups, religion seems to permeate so much of what they are doing that it seems like the ultimate cause of most of their actions or at least their pretended cause (since I'm sure some use religion as somewhat of a facade). But basically it seems like most of these religious terrorists, religion is at the core of everything they do, even though other motivations may exist.
I love that this issue was brought to the public's attention through this conference. It is vital that it is understood that there is no concrete "face of terrorism." As can be seen through this article, the point that many scholars were trying to get across was that religion is not the only basis for terrorism. The frightening thing about this is that it makes it impossible to determine who exactly has the motivation to commit acts of terrorism. As we have spoken about during class, it can be easy to use profiling as a counterterrorism tactic; identifying terrorists based on race, culture, or, most commonly, religion. This tactic, however, is not right, nor is it practical. It is vital that people recognize that terrorism is a method that any individual can utilize and that it is not the tool of any specific religion or race.
Very interesting article. Pape mentioned that while religion is not the root cause of suicide terrorism, it is used as a recruitment tool. This supports the argument that religious terrorist organizations use religion to legitimize their overall political intentions. But I agree with Scott, it is difficult to disregard religion as at least one motivation for suicide terrorism. Granted, I have not done any extensive research, but it seems to me that religion can be a motivation, especially on the part of the actual suicide terrorist. Perhaps the elites have political goals, but I think the people actually blowing themselves certainly have some religious motivations, for example blessings in the afterlife... A very interesting article.
I think that Pape's point is that there are a lot of different things that motivate suicide terrorism which we need to keep in mind not, just religion (as many westerners may assume). I don't think that he would refute that religion is a root cause in many instances of suicide terrorism, just that it is not the only, or perhaps even most prevalent cause of suicide terror.
I actually quoted Pape's book, Dying to Win, in the paper assignment for suicide terrorism. As mentioned in this article, the most common characteristic of suicide bombings is to reclaim prized territory. In his book he “analyzed data on 315 suicide attacks from 1980 to 2003, and asserts that the common thread linking 95 percent of all suicide attacks around the world is not religion or ideology, but rather a clear, strategic, political objective. They are organized campaigns to compel a modern democracy, principally the United States, to withdraw military forces from a group’s perceived homeland” (Robert Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, in “The
Moral Logic of and Growth of Suicide Terrorism,” Washington Quarterly 29 (Spring 2006): 129.). Since there is so much suicide terror being used by non-religious groups, I do not believe that it can be the main motivation behind suicide terror. As with the LTTE, it is possible that a foreign occupation in their "homeland" is motivating them so feverishly that they resort to suicide terror.
I deem to disagree with the experts on this topic. I belive that religion does play a major part in suicide terrorism; the devotion alone to the cuase which they adhere to and are willing to give thier life for, is a strong symptom of religious faith. Notwithstanding there are other reasons for this type of terrorist tactic.
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