Jun. 16, 2016

Why Do Terrorists Commit Terrorism? – Peter Bergen (New York Times)

• To try to figure out why terrorists do what they do, researchers at the think tank New America and I reviewed court records in more than 300 cases of people charged with jihadist terrorism in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001. I have also spoken to terrorists’ families and friends and even to the terrorists themselves.
• The easy explanation – that jihadist terrorists in the U.S. are “mad” or “bad” – proved simply wrong. Around one in 10 had mental health problems, below the incidence in the general population. 12% had served time in prison, compared with 11% of the American male population.
• I found that the perpetrators were generally motivated by militant Islamist ideology; dislike of American foreign policy in the Muslim world; a need to attach themselves to an ideology or organization that gave them a sense of purpose; and a “cognitive opening” to militant Islam.
• For many, joining a jihadist group or carrying out an attack allowed them to become heroes of their own story.The writer is a vice president of New America, a professor at Arizona State University and CNN’s national security analyst.

(Click on article’s title to see the whole article…Ed.)