Suicide Bombers: Who's Next

SUICIDE BOMBERS: WHO ’ S NEXT

Terrorism and Suicide terrorism research

The book, Suicide Bombers: Who ’ s Next, (2007; ISBN 978-86-908309-1-6; E-book: ISBN ISBN 978-86-908309-2-3) by Violeta Matović, illuminates the dark part of suicide terrorism, which more than two decades stands in the shadow of a branchy tree based on the religious conflict between Christians and Muslims.

Pointing out the economic reasons for the conflict of the Islamic East and the Christian West, the author explores secular aspects of suicide terrorism through the scientific approach, contrary to the so far accepted dominant aspect of religious devotion of the Muslims. Identifying the techniques with which the indoctrination by the concept of martyrdom is carried out over the Muslims, the author actually reveals the mechanisms by which the organizers of suicide attacks manage to gain the support from the Muslim community, and thereby a larger number of individuals who devote themselves to a suicide mission.

Reviews:

Dr Andreas Wörgötter, University of Technology, Vienna

Dr Zoran Dragišić, University of Belgrade, the Faculty of Security Studies

Introduction
"Although water from the Christian well is impure, it washes only the dead Jew, so what ’ s the fear?" With these words, of the very famous proverb now, in 1622 Persian Shah Abbas justified his alliance with the English in driving out the Portuguese who held the Ormus port in the Persian Gulf under their control. The English justified themselves with the sectarian differences that created their enmity with the Portuguese. But all of them only wanted the control over the Ormus port.

With these sentences Violeta Matovic begins the explanation of terrorism and suicide terrorism pointing out the secular background of the problem. (p.13-16)

The historical aspect of transnational islamist terrorism
Going far back into the history of relationship between Christian and Islamic followers, Violeta Matović presents the root of the problem of what we now call global terrorism.(17-30)

Economic background of terrorism
"The heritage from the period of imperialism was carrying an economic organization resembling to that of the old days. On the other hand, accepting the system of free trade the Western European countries, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand managed to fruitfully end their industrial revolution and prosper as industrialized societies. Thus, already present gap between rich and poor countries has deepened and from that abyss, the countries of the so-called Global South derived justifications and reasons to endeavor to change such condition." (33)

How Does the Economy Matter for Terrorism, coauthor ''Dr Andreas Wörgötter. ''"In which situations could therefore rational agents decide to support or become terrorists and when can groups secure enough resources in order to carry out their deadly activities although an open, market economy driven system would be available as an alternative? Why are liberal democracies and their representatives becoming a target?  We have to assume that the group choosing to use a terrorist strategy is unified by certain characteristics, a religion, a minority , or maybe an ideology , typically also concentrated in a certain region. Two conditions then have to work together: First, the society is an "end game" over the distribution of valuable property rights. Second, the limited mobility condition (p. 31-52)

Regional traits of islamist terrorism
"Islamist terrorism of today is clearly demonstrated on three, it can be said, battlefields. Organized terrorist activities in Muslim nations include attacks on secular government, organizations and individuals "nonconforming" to Islamic rules. They are engaged with the same intensity in nations having Muslims as ethnical minority, intending to jeopardize sovereignty and territorial integrity, with the goal of achieving territorial independence of areas with Muslim population as prerequisite for formation of "Ummah" (Community of the Believers). The third field is systematic spreading of fear and creating instability in nations with Muslim immigrants, mostly Western nations, with the goal of forcing the governments to retreat from Muslim nations, whether they are present there for their interventionist foreign policy, or for economic or other reasons. Besides the mentioned, one separate category of Islamist terrorism includes the aspiration to destroy the nation of Israel, which, by Islamic understanding, is occupying the Holy Land." (p. 53-66)

Transnational islamist terrorism carriers and goals
"So, Al-Qaeda ’ s strategy lies in achieving these ultimate goals to destruct and demolish the reputation of their enemies in the world. Meanwhile, it is organized by connecting its cells with local terrorist organizations in approximately 30 countries, and is operating in more than 65 countries where it engages financial means, staff, holds training and organizes attacks. Riyad us-Saliheyn Martyrs ’ Brigade, Shamil Basayev (killed by Russian forces on 10th of July, 2006), wants an independent Islamic Chechnya which is not approved by the Russian federation… Kurdistan Workers ’ Party is Marxist-Lenin party that consists of Turkish Kurds with population in Turkey of approximately 17%. … Their wish was to create a Marxist-Lenin state. However, their plans to start a revolution were too ambitious due to lack of support. Most Kurds wanted autonomy, not communism. Unable to start the revolution, it averted to terrorist actions… The main starting goal of the Hezbollah was, like revolutionary accomplishments in Iran, the cancellation of Western influence in Lebanon… Islamic Jihad is an organization that was created as a political movement inside the Muslim Brotherhood… Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawammah al-Islammiyya – Islamic Resistance Movement) in organizational aspect represents one of the more developed groups in this territory. Terrorist activities are the main Hamas ’ way of fighting, and it has a great influence on some social activities as schools, hospitals, sport societies, mosques, etc." (p. 67-78)

The position of suicide terrorism in terrorism
Suicide and Suicide-oriented Terrorism: "Terrorist organizations, by the nature of their position, confront a certain nation, and no matter what their strength might be, in military, economic and intelligence matters they are always in the inferior position compared to the other side. Even when there is a sponsorship from some state, there exists a hesitation to use the full extent of the power. The support of the sponsoring state must remain secret, or at least improvable, in face of the international community. Otherwise, it would not be terrorism, but aggression. On its way from starting the fight till victory, the objective of a terrorist organization is to focus the attention of the international community on its own problem, and ensure the support of its own as large a portion as possible. This cannot be achieved if the acts do not have the publicity, and therefore do not reach the third party, here having the most important role. To gain publicity, the terrorists must direct their strategy and tactics towards prioritized demonstrating. This can be a demonstration of own existence and activity proving that the problem and idea are alive, or still alive; or a demonstration of determination, power, devotion, etc. The terrorism itself is demonstrative, and its violent actions can be classified into: Extortionist, non-lethal; Extortionist-destructive, which can be murderous, and suicide-oriented; and Destructive, which can be murderous, suicide-oriented and suicide." (p. 79-88)

Suicide terrorism
Results of Previous Researches on Suicide Terrorism: "Based on the analyses of events and mentioned organizations, and their higher or lower application of suicide terrorism, scientists and experts in the field came up with different answers to the question why somebody decides to commit a suicide attack. We can roughly divide analytic attitudes in three groups: first group consists of the opinion that the person who commits a suicide attack is purely motivated by projected political cause, whether in religious or national context, and the other group thinks that suicide bombers are lead to death by pure will of their despair caused by war destruction and bad living conditions; and third group contains eclectic and, to some extent, moderate understandings that include possibilities of exploited, cheated or forced suicide acts."

Theoretical Considerations of Suicide Terrorism: "Suicide terrorism, as a phenomenon spread in some parts of global society, inflicted the need for new and serious studies of the nature of this phenomenon, as well as causes of its origin in the light of existing scientific knowledge on deviant behavior and in modifying previous thoughts."

Problem, Subject and Methodology of Research: "Certainly, taking into account the existence of the correlation between indoctrination by martyrdom and suicide terrorism, we can formulate a problem as follows: How does the indoctrination by martyrdom functions and in what way it influences the use of the Islamist suicide terrorism?" (p. 89-114)

The strategy of suicide terrorism
"A very complex task of explaining the nature of suicide terrorism and its reasons demands a thorough research into the contents of this phenomenon, as one of the prerequisites for further generalization. It is necessary to recognize the strategy of suicide terrorism through the characteristics of suicide attack, the organizational, social, and individual levels of suicide terrorism."

The Characteristics of Suicide Attack: Analyzing the reports about the committed suicide bomb attacks, we can distinguish those characteristics concerning the ways of their performing, the means with which they are done, the place and target of the attack, the results that occur from such an act, as well as the goal they wanted to reach.

The Organisational Level of Suicide Terrorism: "When the irrationality of the organizer is discussed, the primary notion is the failure of the perpetration of suicide terrorism in attaining the final, projected, objective. If we measure the value of the application of suicide terrorism in regards to the objective of world domination, "...be assured that these will be owned by the Muslim nation, as the Hadith says… ’ from the ocean to the ocean ’ …", then it is as irrational as the final objective. If we evaluate it in regards to events such as successful coercion of American and French military forces out of Lebanon in 1985, and Israeli forces out of Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1994 and 1995,  then the rationality of the organizers is par excellence."

The Social Level of Suicide Terrorism:" For the possibility of realizing the striving of the organizational force to impose certain concepts, beliefs and ways of social behavior, or to elevate martyrdom and self-sacrifice, three basic elements are needed: A problem pertaining to the whole society, in political, economic and social ways, also comprising war destruction and great casualties in the population, as consequences of the conflict. The closing of society, as the condition for informational isolation from the rest of the world, makes it possible to use certain discursive reasons as the means for maximal exploitation of the national sentiment. Practically, it is necessary to control the media and other available resources and institutions, whereby the indoctrination will be conducted. The indoctrination of martyrdom is successful only in the form of black and white, the ’ us ’ or ’ them ’ dichotomy.

The Individual Level of Suicide Terrorism: "Considering the subject of this discussion, i.e. the role of indoctrination in Islamist suicide terrorism, the answer for all posed questions lies in directing the motives of an individual towards martyrdom. For deeper understanding of the phenomenon of suicide terrorism, however, it is not enough to simply bring up the argument of the great influence of indoctrination. Why? General indoctrination by martyrdom is being conducted on the whole Muslim society, but the whole target community does not load itself with explosives and move into suicide terrorism. As we have already mentioned, suicide bombers are different from other people indoctrinated by martyrdom, by the fact that they have perpetrated a suicide attack. Therefore we must enter the dimension of the individual, and try to explain how the indoctrination by martyrdom, from egoistic and fatalistic form of suicide stated in Durkheim ’ s theory, finally creates altruists who bring good to their society by their suicide attack." (p. 115-168)

Indoctrination by martyrdom
Development of Modern Understanding of Martyrdom: "Islamic term for martyr is shahid (in Arabian, it means witness), and it ’ s identical to Judaist-Christian ’ s concept of martyrdom. The concept of heroic martyrdom is terminologically marked as istishad."

Martyrdom from 622, up to Iranian-Iraqi War in 1980: "In Islam, since the very beginning of Muhammad ’ s prophecies, circa 610 AD, battle for domain and territory under religion ’ s veil, had political and military connotation. Prophet himself wasn ’ t only founder and teacher, he was also ruler and soldier, and he subordinated the country and its military with dogmatic principles. Jihad, which literary means endeavor, aspiration, battle for something or against something, represents Muslim duty to fight for God ’ s cause. It implies struggle with personal ungodliness and with enemies of Islam. Jihad also means holy war using military conquest, if necessary, in order to achieve goals of spreading Islamic community. The one who carries out this duty is called Mujahid."

Martyrdom from 1980, until Today: "A new martyrdom concept emerges in a period of Iranian revolution in 1979. Revolution brought the creation of Islamic state, free of previously established Western culture rules and influences. This new concept brings the almost forgotten sense of Muslim as an individual, who is ready to sacrifice his own life for war victory. The spirit of dying was transferred to Iranian – Iraqi war in 1980, at the beginning of which came the stunning demonstration of Muslim ’ s commitment from Iranian side. Namely, Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, estimated that Iran will not be sufficiently strong to provide serious resistance, owing to internal battles. After Iraqi invasion in September 1980, Iranian domain realizes military inferiority in relation to professional, well armed Iraqi army. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini engages people to resist the enemy with all available resources and commissions import from Taiwan, 500.000 small plastic keys with inspiring relevance. "Martyrdom" uses propaganda as alleviation, and newly formed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or Pasdaran, has a task to gather people in national militia. More precisely, this task was carried out by Basij Mostazafan (mobilization of the oppressed), whose members consciously sacrificed their lives in the attacks on Iraq. In Iraq ’ s most difficult times, thousands of children resorted in mine cleaning actions. They would pass through mine fields and die, activating the placed explosive devices. In that way, they cleared the path for Iranian armed forces. Before every mission, one Taiwan key was hanged on every child ’ s neck, to open the door of Heaven. "

Martyrdom ’ s Cultural System: "Cultural martyrdom system, according to the extremist understanding of jihad, in the last years of the 20th century, has been built in a way previously unknown to Islamic history. Really, Islamic history contains examples of using martyrdom in political purposes, but contemporary practice, especially in Palestine, easily exceeds every possible sanctuary in Islamic dogma. It ’ s not just the problem of suicide and homicide, but martyrdom cultural system implemented in such a way that the essence of life and death of contemporary Muslims (and probably future ones) conflicts with explicitly expressed meaning of life, in Quran. Culture milieu, created with indoctrination program of terrorist organizations (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.), its rituals, practice and activities, perpetrates individual to see his life only in martyrdom, which is opposite with conventionally conceived victory over the enemy."

Carrying out Martyrdom Indoctrination in Muslim Countries:" Indoctrination, in Muslim countries, is carried out through propaganda. Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation with direct goal to influence people ’ s thoughts and behavior… Propaganda is one of the most powerful weapons in armed conflicts. In cases like these, enemy is dehumanized and hate is created. The technique is to create false image, and can be made by using special words, avoiding special words, or blaming the enemy for certain things he didn ’ t do. Domestic population must be persuaded that their cause is just."

General Martyrdom Indoctrination: "With sufficiently well organized and widely spread campaign for the popularization of martyrdom, the percent of volunteers is rapidly growing in relation to the number of the recruited ones. At the same time, general indoctrination represents the first selection level of potential suicide bombers. Social milieu absorbs the idea that suicide operations/martyrdom, as a legitimate act, is worthy of respect. According to that, operations ’ organizers prevent eventual disqualification of such activities as strategy, from the society. Finally, besides public, inactive support, organizers provide active and financial support in order to accomplish the ultimate goal. In debates of terrorism experts, often there is a conflict of thoughts when they ask one question, how much is indoctrination actually influential in suicide terrorism. By analyzing Palestinian example, some authors conclude that it ’ s crucial, as opposed to others who consider that suicide terrorism would manifest with the same intensity and without martyrdom propagation. Authors from the first group consider suicide terrorism as a pure product of good leader organization lead by political goal. Opposing thoughts overlap in the same line, that suicide bomber is a result of individual and collective despair, emanating from tyranny that is being conducted on them. These opposed and, by many things, unilateral thoughts, are pointing much more to their owners ’ political attitudes, than of objective assessment considering the cause of this phenomenon."

Individual Indoctrination by Martyrdom:" Persons attracted by the authoritative appeals stand out from the category of general indoctrination, and enter into the second level of the process of individual indoctrination. In contrast to general, individual indoctrination focuses on the characteristics of a person, who they treat according to the aim of psychological training for carrying out a suicide mission. In an effort to classify the ways individuals are taking to the final goal, i.e., to carry out a suicide action, we will distinguish the next most important categories: Persons that have previously took part in the terrorist activities (supposedly the training, i.e., the training for advancing their capabilities). Persons that have never had any experience in the terrorist activities, but they are becoming recruits for a suicide action by going through the training upon recruiting. Persons that do not undergo the training, but they are immediately sent on a suicide task upon recruiting." (169-218)

The influence of indoctrination by martyrdom – an individual aspect

The Connection Between the Indoctrination by Martyrdom and the Suicide Bombers ’ Motives: "There are numbers of motifs that determine human behavior. Some habits, interests, attitudes and other traits of personality may seem like motifs and therefore it is not possible to determine precisely which of them are, as isolated, unsatisfied motifs in the cases we exhibit here. This, in addition, hinders the inadequacy of the reports upon which we make our analysis. Our intent is to find causes for personal crisis, i.e., to recognize the unsatisfied motif for affiliation and for the effectiveness or developed capability for fatal self-injury."

The Direction of the Individuals ’ Attitudes in Connection with Indoctrination by Martyrdom: "The attitudes of an individual in Muslim society, a non-Muslim can hardly understand, if they are perceived as a reflection of the widely spread campaign for "mizwest" – hatred towards West. The Near East view of the current conflict is as of another one in the series of the crusades and the Islamic Jihad, while the West is examining a virtual picture of spreading a democracy. The first urge the epigoni of the way of life of the Mohammed and the way of the warfare of the famous Saladin, the latter were decoding the human gene. The misunderstanding is enormous."

Indoctrination by the Concept of Martyrdom as a Link Between Personal Crisis and Altruistic Suicide: "Various situations in the everyday life of an individual in the Muslim society are shaped through the propaganda, according to the newly created culture of death. Organizers of indoctrination and suicide attacks manage to bring the martyrdom at arm ’ s length of every individual, that is, to materialize indoctrination. In everyday advertisements, as in example of Iran, the volunteers are invited to register for martyrdom mission, "...Volunteers, men or women, will start with specialized courses. Brothers and sisters believers who want to defend the Islam can ring 664…. in Tehran, and they have to send two photos, a copy of the document as a birth certificate and a demand to join the martyrdom unit."  (p. 219-244)

Conclusion
"The results from the research we exposed in this book show that the propagandized concept of martyrdom, as a most respectful act in Islamic society, is sublimation for unsatisfied needs of an individual. Relying on the Thomas Joyner ’ s suicide theory, which holds that compounded dissatisfaction of two fundamental needs in man, for affiliation and effectiveness, results in creating a desire for death, the results from the research imply that the motif for committing a suicide attack directly originates from unsatisfying the mentioned needs. Frustration is a result of thwarted needs. It does not have to be the cause for some severe psychological illness, but it is often the cause for the feeling of inefficiency and alienation. Sublimation arises when the attainable motif that is socially valued replaces the unattainable one, as a sort of compensation. The new concept of martyrdom is attainable and highly valued motif." (p. 245-254)

(Pages 306)