Terrorism attracts failures and losers
ONCE again our media has been engulfed for a week with details of another mass killing by a jihadist, and this time not Paris, Nice, Berlin or Brussels but right in our own capital. But I saw little discussion of one thing that intrigues me: why do they do it? Is there a common denominator? It seems there is.
It is a ballpark figure but I believe pretty accurate. About 80 per cent of jihadist suicides and killers seem to have one of three attributes. Common factor one is the extreme prevalence of petty criminality, of thuggery, court appearances and prison, of low-level crime – and that was before the supposed conversion to religious extremism.
Another factor is the extremely high level of prolonged drug use. Third, an extremely low IQ and failure in life.
It is hard to think of one suicide bomber, or attempted terrorist now in handcuffs after being discovered and arrested in time, who was revealed as a high-achiever with a good brain and no police record. When they are arrested, or scraped off the pavement after suicide with a bomb, each one is minutely examined by the authorities. With extremely high regularity the bomber is revealed as a low-life of no achievement or leadership qualities. asked a psychiatrist friend for the link. He put it down to a life of minimal self-worth. It seems hardly any terrorist was born to a fanatically devout Muslim family and raised to extremism.
The vast majority come from normal, law-abiding, peaceable people, said my friend. But they achieve almost nothing and are thus attracted to people preaching a purpose in life – or death.
Often the conversion comes in prison where the converter has 24/7 access to the purposeless, directionless failure. Hence easy conversion. And the reverse happens, in or out of jail.
The recruiter/converter will spot the feckless low-life and home in. A youth and life of failure, petty crime and drug use can easily lead to mental frailty and extreme persuadability. What a contrast between an awareness of uselessness in this world and elevation to high honour on the right hand of the Almighty in the next.
There is nothing particularly Muslim about the desire for eternal glory. It permeates every religion. But only jihadism instructs that self-sacrifice must be accompanied by the mass slaughter of others.
Nor are Christians and Jews, or Westerners, the only targets. Throughout the Middle East tens of thousands of Muslims have been the victims of the suicide and car bombers.
Their crime before Allah? None. That is why jihadism is so sick: not a creed but a deranged worship of death and misery. Nothing to do with Islam.