Article

2019-05-05 Sri Lanka

From a bit ago, but a good overview touching on a number of names already in our archives.

[CNN] Sri Lankan Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said Wednesday that most of the gunnies who killed at least 253 people at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday were "well-educated and come from maybe middle- or upper-middle-class. So, they are financially quite independent, and their families are quite stable financially."

Two of the jacket wallahs were the sons of a wealthy Sri Lankan spice trader, Mohammed Ibrahim, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.

This likely runs counter to what many people may believe about suicide bombers. After all, why would well educated, upper-middle-class folks with seemingly everything to live for blow themselves up and kill so many innocents?

Continued from Page 4

Of course, there is no simple answer for what must be a difficult decision, nor is there a one-size-fits-all description of how people radicalize to the point that they are willing to die while killing.

In the case of Sunni holy warriors, this decision is likely enabled by their embrace of violent jihadist ideology, which is often sectarian in nature and encourages the murder of "infidels." This is often combined with the belief that Sunni Moslems are under attack and Dire Revenge must be taken.

Group dynamics can also play a role. The terrorism expert Marc Sageman in his 2004 book "Understanding Terror Networks" examined the biographies of 172 Sunni gunnies and found that friends and family members often joined jihadist groups together. Three pairs of Saudi brothers, for instance, were hijackers on 9/11. A similar dynamic can be seen with the two brothers among the suicide bombers in the Sri Lanka attacks.

In fact, terrorism experts have long known that terrorism is often a bourgeois endeavor.

Before we unpack that, let's stipulate thon the lam Death Eater groups that also practice terrorism, such as the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
, recruit tens of thousands of foot soldiers largely from the ranks of the poor and pay them a monthly wage.

That is why the Taliban are one of the largest narco mobs in the world: they have to meet a large payroll every month.

By contrast, pure terrorist groups are made up of true believers who are volunteers that are generally not being paid a wage.

Some of the most notorious gunnies of the modern era have been some of the most privileged people on the planet.

the late Osama bin Laden

... who has left the building...
was the son of a Saudi construction magnate.

His successor as the leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al

Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
, is a surgeon from a prominent Egyptian family.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called "underwear bomber" who tried to blow up an American passenger jet over bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit
... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang...
on Christmas Day 2009, is the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker and was attending University College London, one of the top universities in the world, when he tried unsuccessfully to blow up Northwest Flight 253 with a bomb secreted in his underwear.

The underwear bomber was directed on his mission by Anwar al-Awlaki

... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list...
, the US-born son of a Yemeni cabinet minister who was studying for his PhD at George Washington University before he joined al Qaeda in Yemen.

The notorious ISIS terrorist "Jihadi John" -- Mohammed Emwazi -- who was responsible for the beheading of American journalist James Foley in 2014, was from "a well-to-do family who grew up in West London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming," according to the Washington Post.

The lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta, was the son of an Egyptian lawyer and was studying for a doctorate from a German university.

There are many other examples, but you get the point.

The fact that Death Eater groups often recruit from the ranks of the unemployed poor suggests that an effective policy response would be to supply jobs for unemployed youths in countries such as Afghanistan.

That policy response wouldn't work for middle-class jihadist gunnies motivated by ideology. For those gunnies the best response is for knowledgeable Islamic holy mans to dissuade them, or for defectors from jihadist groups to explain that killing innocents will not create the Islamist utopia that they yearn for.

Posted by trailing wife 2019-05-05 00:00|| || Front Page|| [25 views ] Top
File under: Islamic State

#1 If you believe islam creates utopia then removing the evidence it does not (islamic countries are shit-holes compared to western nations) is their natural response.

Rich kids are just able to get the evidence.

Who you going to believe? The koran or your own lying eyes?

Unfortunately they choose koran.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-05-05 07:55|| 2019-05-05 07:55|| Front Page Top

#2 Well in the Sri Lanka example, daddy seems to have been the wellspring.

In general, when a rich kid goes splodeydope, I think the dynamic is something like:
1 - make the kid feel guilty because he's rich.
2 - convince him X, Y or Z is keeping his brethren down and he helped by being rich
3 - the only way to expiate his guilt is to uplift his poor, downtrodden brethern by killing all the X, Y or Z's
4 - and by the way, if you kill yourself in the process, that's all to the good - shows true remorse and you get 72 raisins as a reward.

Posted by Sloluting Pholuper6540 2019-05-05 08:28|| 2019-05-05 08:28|| Front Page Top

#3 Or consider Patty Hearst. To avoid being forced into a marriage she invented a cult which captured and brainwashed her with Stockholm syndrome to the point where she was spraying bullets with her pretend terror group. All because she was a spoiled rich entitled bitch.

Posted by 3dc 2019-05-05 11:29|| 2019-05-05 11:29|| Front Page Top

#4 The SLA was a real terrorist group. Her "kidnapping" may be as you said above

The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was an American left-wing terrorist organization active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders, and other acts of violence.

Posted by Frank G 2019-05-05 12:11|| 2019-05-05 12:11|| Front Page Top

#5 Just as there's always someone smarter, there is always someone richer, and some rich kids decide the way to even things up is to become a Bond villain.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-05 12:43|| 2019-05-05 12:43|| Front Page Top

#6 Because it's islam.

Posted by Woodrow 2019-05-05 14:51|| 2019-05-05 14:51|| Front Page Top

#7 Life needs purpose. Most people get absorbed in work, others in sports teams. The idle rich don't have that so they are fertile ground for anything that provides a purpose. In the past that meant Christianity and/or the military service, now Communism and Islam are filling the bill.

Posted by rjschwarz 2019-05-05 17:28|| 2019-05-05 17:28|| Front Page Top

#8 They take their religion seriously. Their families have enough money that whether they work or not isn't an immediate existential issue, so they have time to learn about the infidels (who not surprisingly shock them more than the familiar vices of the folks back home), and the opportunity to join jihad.

Posted by james 2019-05-05 18:21|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com 2019-05-05 18:21|| Front Page Top

#9 To be fair, Osama bin Laden was only one of his father’s fifty-six children from his twenty-two wives. That’s less than 2% gone bad. And of Osama’s 20+ children, I am only aware of one who seems to have chosen to walk in his papa’s footsteps, though there may be others who are quieter about it.

Posted by trailing wife 2019-05-05 21:19|| 2019-05-05 21:19|| Front Page Top

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