Posted on 07/02/2004 3:03:42 PM PDT by quidnunc
Most Americans have a false idea of the shadowy, worldwide terrorist network led by al-Qaida, according to a former CIA operative who collected the life histories of almost 400 members of the deadly movement.
The stereotype that these terrorists are poor, desperate, single young men from Third World countries, vulnerable to brainwashing, is wrong, Dr. Marc Sageman told an international terrorism conference in Washington this week.
Most Arab terrorists he studied were well-educated, married men from middle- or upper-class families, in their mid-20s and psychologically stable, said Sageman, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Many of them knew several languages and traveled widely.
But when they settled in foreign countries, they became lonely, homesick and embittered, he said. They felt humiliated by the weakness and backwardness of their homelands. They formed tight cliques with fellow Arabs and drifted into mosques more for companionship than for religion. Radical preachers convinced them it was their duty to drive Americans from Muslim holy lands, killing as many as possible.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at realcities.com ...
Considering that they can have 4 wives and they can be as young as 12, I'd say there are no virgins in heaven except the little children who Saddam gassed and denied medical help so he could build 52 palaces under the UN program.
Just read Atta's will again. These are sick minds.
I remember he wanted only clean women at his funeral. I hope that nothing but whores attended.
Educated...in what? "Normal" childhood - in a place like Saudi Arabia, what's that mean? When these young men do it for money rather than for Islamic fun, does this mean we need to pay them instead? Anybody think that'd make a difference? The only way for us to get in there and change things is to go to war - the despots aren't going to make opportunities for their own people.
I can understand why our side wants to know the enemy - to kill them better! - but this is just more drivel in the end.
I never thought that this was the stereotype to begin with.
Maybe if they had a healthy relationship with just one female on this earth, they wouldn't be as attracted to such nonsense. I have to believe that the way women are treated in Muslim society has a great deal to do with its sickness.
Sounds like a reasonable stereotype to me:
"Most Arab terrorists he studied were well-educated, married men from middle- or upper-class families, in their mid-20s and psychologically stable......Many of them knew several languages and traveled widely."
You have touched on a very pertinent issue here. It's sad to think that these guys might be willing to blow themselves up just so they can have some sort of cosmic sex orgy with celestial virgins, but come to think of it, that may play a major role in this. Most of these guys are young, and perhaps it escapes us as we get older, have spouses and families, that a major preoccupation for men at this age is sex. If I could go back in time and eradicate that preoccupation from my college years I probably would have graduated with honors, but as it was, that stuff took up a lot of my brain time, and I am certain that it affected my academic performance. I realize that's normal, but when that preoccupation can be harnessed to unleash mayhem, that's bad news.
To reiterate, you raise a good point.
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