I agree with Don x above.

Thanks for the discussion. You might also want to take a look at this paper which talks about the psychological profile of suicide bombers: http://pb.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/26/8/285
Often religion is a catalyst, but other factors such as self-loathing, humiliation and alienation are key factors as well.

Keep up the great musings!

I really enjoyed your discussion, and I agree that the struggle for “absolutes” tends to lead us into trouble.

However, I also think that there is a danger in assuming that there will always be a morass of complicated motivations for such things as acts of terrorism, when in many instances (though obviously not all) they can be regarded as religiously inspired.

From a rational perspective, I think we tend to assume that blowing oneself up would be a desperate act of last resort, only done when all other means of protest or redress have been exhausted. However, to take the 9/11 hijackers as the most relevant example, those individuals did not suffer from a lack of means, or economic hardship and they were (for the most part) college-educated; they were not the impoverished or the oppressed.

So I think it is quite valid to ask: Is it likely that these individuals would have committed the acts that they did, without a religious belief in martyrdom?

Personally, I doubt it. I don’t think it was the only reason, but it was certainly the most compelling. To argue this however, is often seen as condemning the entire religion of Islam (or “Islamophobic”) rather than criticising the individual religious beliefs of the hijackers. Like you said, all nuance is lost in the media.

I would also say that the ‘freedom’ to hold beliefs (or not) is rather difficult to apply to a person who grows up within a family and community with restrictive (even oppressive) cultural or relgious practices. If it were the case that the choice of beliefs was respected, then such things as honour killings of young women in supposedly ‘free’ and secular countries, for transgressions of those practices, would not continue to occur.

I think the demonisation of Islam by commentators and politicians is not only contemptible for the prejudice and hatred it creates, (and the free ride it gives to oppression from any other religions!) but also because it polarises and stifles rational debate on the issues. It limits our ability to level justified (and reasoned) criticism of behaviours and practices, regardless of their cultural or religious origins.

Thanks again for another stimulating conversation!

Don x