A ‘terrorist’ could be someone just like you

EVER thought of becoming a terrorist? You may have a personal profile that qualifies you.

In our country where skin tones remain an obsession, the sight of pale Samantha Lewthwaite, directing terrorist gunmen during the Kenyan Westgate mall attack, was a shock. Then to discover that she had spent significant time in South Africa brought the terror so much closer.

Could Westgate, Nairobi ever come to Greenacres, Port Elizabeth or Hemingways, East London?

I suppose we were feeling just a little of the shock-horror Americans have experienced ever since 9/11. To discover that people just like us are hellbent on destroying life and property in the name of some ideology is terrifying indeed.

That’s why Americans are trying to understand what makes a terrorist. What are the conditions that puts a young person like Samantha Lewthwaite at risk of being recruited for acts of terror?

Pennsylvania State University psychologist John Horgan PhD has been researching this complex area for some years. The research is difficult.

Firstly, because one person’s “terrorist” is another’s “freedom fighter”.

Secondly, a public appeal for terrorists to come forward and take part in a survey is unlikely to work.

Fortunately, Horgan has over many years been able to record the stories of “repentant former terrorists”, who had disappeared into mainstream American life but wanted to share their stories of blood and bombs.

This has yielded some interesting insights into the mind of terror. The first striking fact is that terrorists are usually not pathological in any conventional sense. They are not psychopaths and Hannibal Lecters who kill for pleasure.

They are ordinary young people who Horgan discovered tend to: Feel angry, alienated or disenfranchised. Believe that their current political involvement does not give them the power to effect real change.

Identify with perceived victims of the social injustice they are fighting.

Feel the need to take action rather than just talking about the problem.

Believe that engaging in violence against the state is not immoral. Have friends or family sympathetic to the cause. Believe that joining a movement offers social and psychological rewards such as adventure, camaraderie and a heightened sense of identity. Recognise anyone you know? It is with these, mainly young, people that “recruiters” for terrorist movements have the greatest success.

In a world where little voices are not heard and where dominant financial, cultural and even religious views drown out oppositional appeals, terrorism is seen as the only way to get attention.

Another researcher, Clark McCauley describes terrorism as “the warfare of the weak”. By this he means that terrorists are trying to get the attention of those who are not listening to what they are saying.

If we are to stop terror we really have to begin listening to the powerless ones.

Peter is a pastoral therapist and conflict mediator