Mind of a terrorist

[MargeB]

What exactly is going on in the head of the people who carry out these kind of attacks, or those that direct them?

[twiglet4frog]

probably honestly believe that the more they kill the "enemies of the god" the higher their place in heaven.

A lot of suicide bombers on palestinian side are teenage lads who are drummed into them that if they give there life to god in this way they will be granted a hundred virgins for sex in the kingdom of heaven along with other wonderful things, as they are doing their gods work and making them happy.

Religion can be a very powerful thing to a human mind as we are seeing quite often

[gingerflaps]

maybe but u wouldnt catch me doin that....cant these people see the reality of everything?

[Oneeyedvic]

Was discussing this yesterday with a colleague who referred me to a documentary.

Essence of it was that a 'normal' woman from Vietnam came back to her village to find it had been napalmed. She lost everything from her family through to her house. She then decided that her whole mission in life was to kill Americans.

Whilst no one on this site will (hopefully) ever condone terrorist activities, until an understanding why they happens, I would assume they will carry on.

Politicians have to understand that every decision they make where innocent people are killed will have powerful ramifications.

[Loosehead]

They have been brainwashed into beleiving that the only way for mankind is the world implementation of sharia law. Anyone who disagrees, even other muslims are the infidel and can legitimately be slaughtered. They believe they are cleansing the planet for god, they are fighting satan.

[woofgang]

try searching on "memes" or memplexes, its very interesting. Also there's a book by Jack Cohen and terry pratchett called "discworld2-the globe" that has some interesting stuff

[MargeB]

While some very good answers here, they do give me grounds for despair and confirm my worst fears. Bloody hell, clever lot on Answerbank! Loosehead, I see the same thing happened in Nigeria, and while I remain open minded (read politically correct) I wonder if the same thing will happen to the UK. I'm not a religious person, so don't walk around condemning muslims and welcome the latest condemnation by the Muslim leaders. But can someone do the following Maths equation for me?

x=Britain, intensely historically grounded once predominantly Christian nation

y=very rapidly increasing proportion of non-Christian religion influx (to 30%+levels within decades), some elements of which promote sharia totalitarian regime.

x+y=?

[twiglet4frog]

i only hope that those effected dont try to retaliate at the wrong people, as some right wing parties are suggesting at the moment. We need to find those that organised and funded this, and those carrying it out and not victimise the innocent and law abiding muslims in this country that do care about Britain.

[MargeB]

I agree twiglet. There will be plenty of the BNP brigade and friends jumping on this bandwagon. Get rid of all terrorists! All muslims are terrorists?! Well, are all Christians terrorists, because there were plenty of Christian bombs flying around the UK in the past few decades.

I think that Islam in the UK does need to keep its house in order in the UK. These attacks have nothing whatsoever, in form or in sentiment, to do with most muslims. However it is some Muslim mosques that are being used in the UK to stir up anti-West sentiment and encourage bomb attacks. People were put in prison for this when the UK government intervened, not when Islam UK stepped in to remove them from its places of worship.

If mainstream Islam condemns the attacks (and I think they do), would they kindly lock the door next time before the horse bolts. Evidence is suggesting that the perpetrators were 'clean skins', home grown UK terrorists.

Obviously these bombings affect muslims in the UK as well as anyone else, and those seeking to make Ingroup-Outgroup capital out of this should be deplored.

[Zen]

What goes on in the mind of a USAF or RAF pilot as he's about to drop cluster bombs on a village school ?
It's what you have been conditioned to do,perhaps you shoulld ask Tony Liar or George Bush ?

[luckyboy]

thats a good summing up loosehead..

But be prepared to be condemned by some on here as being ignorant of the issues that drive these islamic fascists to commit terrorism... 

[stevie21]

I've heard much the same thing : if someone believes that they're fighting a religious war and they sacrifice their own life in the name of that war then they go straight to the highest tier of heaven.

If this is in any way accurate then it explains why some people are so keen to be suicide bombers etc.

While banding about words like "brainwashed" is easy, I think that my opinions on many things are affected by society's norms. I find women with certain physical (i.e. athletic) features attractive, at least partly because that's what is deemed by society as attractive. Yonks ago, pasty fat people were attractive as they were seen to be affluent enough to be able to overeat and affluence was attractive and disease avoidant.
I don't consider myself to be brainwashed and I'm sure that these terrorists don't either.

[ESCENA]

I think there are two kinds of attackers, the simple people, the ones that have witnessed their lives,villages, kids get murdered and destroyed and after a point they couldn'take any longer and decided to make themselves bombs.

And the recruited attackers , the ones trained fanatically and brainwashed to identify Eu/USA people killings as attacks against West goverment superiority and Israeli/USA//EU occasionally political partnership.

In both cases we should be considering that rage, hate, dying in the name of ideals are emotions and emotional acts acceptable in Muslim countries that have been suffering from loss of military power to defend themselves and social influence against American lobby for decates.
For them becoming a moving bomb is the only to cause casualties to their opponents contrary to us that we can always rely on our strong army to do the job for us.

[stevie21]

This might be a bit of a change of tack but we have, MUCH closer to home, people who describe themselves and others as "freedom fighters" who leave bombs in public places to blow up people indiscriminately.
I'd say "terrorist" but others of a certain persuasion say "freedom fighter".

I genuinely don't understad how they think that this could ever help their "cause"