Four Myths About Terrorists

Much of what the Mainstream Media say about terrorists is wrong, according to a new scientific study of more than 500 Islamic terrorists by former CIA psychiatrist Marc Sageman, published in a new book entitled "Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century." (1)

The book explodes four common myths about Islamic terrorists. Most of Dr Sageman's findings also apply to Marxist American terrorists as well, even though only Muslims were studied for this book.

Myth 1: Terrorists are driven by poverty.
Fact: Most terrorists are middle-class, with more upper-class than poor people. This is also true of American Marxist terrorists, such as the Weather Underground of the early 1970's. For example, Bill Ayers was the son of a utility executive, and his wife Bernardine Dohrn (Whitefish Bay HS, 1959) was the daughter of the credit manager of a Milwaukee appliance store.

Myth 2: Terrorists are crazy.
Fact: Prior to involvement in terror, very few had previously exhibited any signs of mental illness or been treated for it. In fact, according to Sageman, terrorists are in better mental health than the rest of the population of their home countries.
Among American terrorists (not included in the study), only Unabomber Ted Kaczinski showed clear signs of mental illness before he started mailing bombs.

Myth 3: Terrorists lack secular education.
Fact: Nearly two-thirds of Islamic terrorists attended a university, far more than the ten percent in their home countries with any post-high school education.
Among American terrorists, Ayers was a graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Dohrn earned bachelor's and law degrees at the University of Chicago, and Kaczinski earned a PhD in mathematics at the University of Michigan. Only about half of American high school graduates go to college at all, but the most violent radicals went to the best universities in the nation. On the other hand, Timothy McVeigh did not attend college.

Myth 4: Islamic terrorists are religious fanatics.
Fact: In Sageman's sample, only about a fourth were deeply religious when young, while nearly two-thirds were secular. Many did not even read the Quran until they were in prison, and most knew little about Islam.

Then, why do some young Muslim men become terrorists, while most do not?

Sageman found that about 80% of the Islamic terrorists in his sample were either immigrants to the West from Muslim countries, or sons or grandsons of immigrants. Many harbored a deep sense of grievance against their adoptive countries or Western Civilization. They found a common ground of grievance with other young Muslims in their communities . Often they were drawn into terrorist cells by friends or relatives who were already members.

Discussions among members of these small groups tended to reinforce and confirm the outrage that they felt against those regarded as the enemies of Islam. As the consensus of a group tended to drift in a more militant direction, those who were turned-off by militancy dropped out, leaving the hard-core members in charge. Those angry enough to take action then heard only the voices of those who felt the same way.

Although large numbers of Muslims live in the United States, as well as Western Europe, native Islamic terrorism has been a much greater problem in England, France, and Spain than here. (2) According to Sageman, the difference is that in the US the Muslims are just another minority group, along with blacks, Hispanics, Jews, etc. Muslims are accepted into American society and its economy much more than in Europe, where they are conspicuous as the main "outsider" group and experience substantial discrimination. The homogeneity of the non-Muslim population in many European countries is major factor in the perception of exclusion by the Muslims.

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(1) University of Pennsylvania Press, as reviewed in The New Republic, October 22, 2008.

(2) None of the September 11, 2001, hijackers were US residents, nor were any of those who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. All of them entered this country from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and the United Arab Emirates.