Proud Infidel ranting about the ongoing war against democratic and secular values (Don't fool yourselves)! Maybe a voice of sanity in a wide ocean of madness.

20070706

Lack of Civil Liberties, Not Poverty, Breeds Terrorism

When Princeton economist Alan Krueger saw reports that seven of eight people arrested in the unsuccessful car bombings in Britain were doctors, he wasn't shocked. He wasn't even surprised.
"Each time we have one of these attacks and the backgrounds of the attackers are revealed, this should put to rest the myth that terrorists are attacking us because they are desperately poor," he says. "But this misconception doesn't die."

[...]

As a group, terrorists are better educated and from wealthier families than the typical person in the same age group in the societies from which they originate," Mr. Krueger said at the London School of Economics last year in a lecture soon to be published as a book, "What Makes a Terrorist?"

[...]

Backgrounds of 148 Palestinian suicide bombers show they were less likely to come from families living in poverty and were more likely to have finished high school than the general population. Biographies of 129 Hezbollah shahids (martyrs) reveal they, too, are less likely to be from poor families than the Lebanese population from which they come. The same goes for available data about an Israeli terrorist organization, Gush Emunim, active in the 1980s.

• Terrorism doesn't increase in the Middle East when economic conditions worsen; indeed, there seems no link. One study finds the number of terrorist incidents is actually higher in countries that spend more on social-welfare programs. Slicing and dicing data finds no discernible pattern that countries that are poorer or more illiterate produce more terrorists. Examining 781 terrorist events classified by the U.S. State Department as "significant" reveals terrorists tend to come from countries distinguished by political oppression, not poverty or inequality.

• Public-opinion polls from Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey find people with more education are more likely to say suicide attacks against Westerners in Iraq are justified. Polls of Palestinians find no clear difference in support for terrorism as a means to achieve political ends between the most and least educated.

Read it all

4 Comments:

Blogger WomanHonorThyself said...

as long as they keep analyzing they dont have to act .Is that it!!!

Friday 6 July 2007 at 22:01:00 CEST

 
Blogger Yankee Doodle said...

It's a totalitarian ideology of conquest wrapped up as a religion. Because it's totalitarian, people aren't supposed to question it or think for themselves. Because it's wrapped up as a religion, people are fanatical about it and willing to die implementing it.

The devil really knew what he was doing when he was whispering in Mohammed's ear....

Saturday 7 July 2007 at 01:16:00 CEST

 
Blogger pela68 said...

"The devil really knew what he was doing when he was whispering in Mohammed's ear...."

Who ever was whispering in mo's ear! It wasceartinly not the good guy!
But still 1.5 billion people has fallen for this scam...

- Who is to blame really? The muslims or our politicians? You tell me!

Saturday 7 July 2007 at 02:22:00 CEST

 
Blogger anticant said...

The most frightening aspect of the Bush/Blair bogus 'war on terror' is the rapid dismantling of centuries' old civil liberties in the US and UK on the pretext that they are no longer 'appropriate'. If this is allowed to stand, the terrorists will have effectively won even if they never commit another atrocity, and we shall be living in an Orwellian 1984-type society. We - the people - are fighting a war on two fronts, against the Islamists and our own neofascist governments.

Sunday 8 July 2007 at 12:50:00 CEST

 

Post a Comment

<< Home