Why Suicide Bombings and the beliefs behind them

[anunitu]

This has bubbled for a while in my brain,trying to get a handle about why people(religious people I guess) commit Suicide bombings and other (911 planes into buildings) Car bombs..I found this site that seems to at least explain the rational they follow in this.

Even with this knowledge it boggles my mind as to why.

http://www.meforum.org/1003/the-religious-foundations-of-suicide-bombings

The site does go into a broad explanation of this action,and at least try's to explain the way.

I believe this site is from a non Muslim perspective,only laying out the reasons the Muslims can take this path.

Not intended to be a debate,it however "May" end up becoming one depending on peoples reactions to the whole concept..So understand this in a form of explaination and not really a debate. Id you wish to go there,please start a separate thread.

[Norse_Angel]

I read this large compilation of books "Terrorists, and how they think" back in high school. One of the books (there were 10) talked in depth of the religious system behind it. What I recall from this book is that it's the leaders that use the religion as a way of gaining followers. Well, duh, but in depth, the author went on to say that it was a type of brainwashing the followers to make "holy sacrifices" in the name of their God, and in doing so, that God would recognize that sacrifice, and let that person into the paradise land. The 73 virgin thing is no where in their religious texts, but that paradise was never fully explained. So, not only does this leader of that said terrorist organization act as a commander of his troops, but as a religious figure as well.
This is just what I recall from that book. There was a lot more, but I agree with everything that book had to say.

[thalassa]

Jim Jones.

A charismatic leader can get a group of people that want to believe on *something* to do just about *anything*.

[MaskedOne]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_attack

Suicidal methods have been around a long time and used by lots of people. The author of that essay appears to be trying to portray this as a special tactic of Islam. He's either horribly misinformed or actively dishonest. Take your pick.

[anunitu]

My main interest was and is the why and how people(individuals) come to a point where they will commit these acts of what seems self destruction for some end. I know some religious groups seem to get people to do this,and I want to understand just how they manage this,but also WHY people become willing to die in an effort.

[Hawkfeathers]

The idea is ingrained in society, to begin with. How often do people say "I'd die for (my country, my kid, my beer, whatever)" The whole Romeo & Juliet thing about romantic tragedy. It's everywhere. We toss around phrases about death like we're talking about taking a nap. "That dress is to die for", etc. So, you get some charismatic leader type, like thal said, and there you go.

[anunitu]

I do think that western society seems less effected because of the large "Individual" aspect,the individual as more important that the state idea. Some other cultures seem to have each person is less than the state as a whole. There was a bit of this in the old Soviet union. The west tends toward more value to the individual as is pointed out in our constitution,Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness as every ones goal.

[thalassa]

I do think that western society seems less effected because of the large "Individual" aspect,the individual as more important that the state idea. Some other cultures seem to have each person is less than the state as a whole. There was a bit of this in the old Soviet union. The west tends toward more value to the individual as is pointed out in our constitution,Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness as every ones goal.

Nah, I think Western society just is a) too diverse to be able to get a big enough following that it looks like a significant following and 2) too selfish to have enough people willing to die for their beliefs.

Individuality isn't any protection from wanting a group to belong to, if anything, I think it makes it worse. We just have more choices, and many of them quite informal...you can be a Faux newsie, an anti-abortion activist (some of them even blow things up), an environmental terrorist, etc... (Like Western girls trying to marry ISIS fighters)

[Tylluan Penry]

'The most dangerous creation is the man with nothing to lose.'

[gelman66]

Yes the suicide bombers feel they have nothing to lose. They are also in the grips of ideology promoted by el-Qaida and ISIS which clamps down on peoples minds and destroys their free will, when they surrender to it. This has nothing to do with Islam per se. It's a specific ideology related to Arabic culture and is specific to areas of the Middle east where Sunni Islam is practiced.

This is really a problem of ideology. The ideology is a brand of culture fascism The ideology when you pull it apart has everything to with fascism. Umberto Eco the famous Italian author defined 14 points of fascist thought, 10 of 14 are presented here:

(1) "The Cult of Tradition", combining cultural syncretism with a rejection of modernism. They are revere tradition over all.
(2) "The Cult of Action for Action's Sake", which dictates that action is of value in itself, and should be taken without intellectual reflection.
(3) "Disagreement Is Treason" - fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action
(4) Fear of Difference", which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.
(5) "Appeal to a Frustrated Middle Class", fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups
(6) "Obsession with conspiracy theories" and the hyping-up of an enemy threat; This often involves an appeal to xenophobia
(7) Pacifism is Trafficking with the Enemy" because "Life is Permanent Warfare" - there must always be an enemy to fight
(8) "Contempt for the Weak" - although a fascist society is elitist, everybody in the society is educated to become a hero/martyr
(9) Selective Populism" - the People have a common will, which is not delegated but directed by a dictator
(10) "Newspeak" - fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning


The ISIS/el-Qaida ideology employs most of these. Those that accept completely brainwash themselves and are capable of doing horrific acts in the name of their cause...

[Bacab]

Muslims are hardly unique in committing suicide bombings. The Kurdish nationalists of Turkey as well as the Tamil Tigers back in the 80s and 90s also committed suicide bombings, and the practice itself owes its origin to the Japanese kamikaze, which was Shintoist in origin with Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist influence. Also, modern suicide bombings, while justified with Islamic rhetoric, are not caused by Islam per se but are a reaction to Western imperialism and colonialism. People forget how the UK and France colonized almost all of the Islamic world. Many Islamic countries didn't even get their independence until decades ago, and they still suffer from the machinations of Western powers, mostly the US which has imposed its own governments and supports Israel.

As to why people are willing to do such a thing, it's no different really than being a soldier in the battlefield where you know you can die. Lack of fear in the face of death is something universal. For this reason is why martyrdom ideology is the product of lack of weapons and resources as well as the effectiveness of suicide attacks than suicide attacks being the product of martyrdom ideology. But lack of fear is something any culture would have in the face of oppression. It's part of what has made armies win wars and popular violent revolts succesful.

[B. de Corbin]

"—It is so little true that martyrs offer any support to the truth of a cause that I am inclined to deny that any martyr has ever had anything to do with the truth at all. In the very tone in which a martyr flings what he fancies to be true at the head of the world there appears so low a grade of intellectual honesty and such insensibility to the problem of "truth", that it is never necessary to refute him. Truth is not something that one man has and another man has not: at best, only peasants, or peasant apostles like Luther, can think of truth in any such way. One may rest assured that the greater the degree of a man's intellectual conscience the greater will be his modesty, his discretion, on this point. To know in five cases, and to refuse, with delicacy, to know anything further… "Truth", as the word is understood by every prophet, every sectarian, every free-thinker, every Socialist and every churchman, is simply a complete proof that not even a beginning has been made in the intellectual discipline and self-control that are necessary to the unearthing of even the smallest truth.—The deaths of the martyrs, it may be said in passing, have been misfortunes of history: they have misled… "

Neitzsche, The Anti-Christ.