Obviously enough there has been a lot in the papers and on the telly and all over the shop in webland about terrorists and the bombings in London. (Slightly less on the continual attacks in Iraq itself, but that is a different issue) And a lot seem to be asking the question why did these “normal” young British men change. How does some one go from being “sound as a pound” to blowing himself up?
Many are pointing the finger at religion, and extreme fundamentalists. Others say the radicalisation is due to US, British and others role in Iraq, to the whole history of the west’s involvement in the middle east. (Which reminds me, Jon Snow’s Shooting History makes for very interesting reading).
I think that suicide bombers aren’t actually real Muslims. They have more in common with cult members than with members of any religion.
What is a cult?
- It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members
- It forms an elitist totalitarian society.
- Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma.
- It believes ‘the end justifies the means’ in order to solicit funds recruit people.
- Its wealth does not benefit its members or society
.
the thing that most baffles me is, what did they think they were going to achieve? was the whole of britain going to convert to fundamental islam because of this?
What did the actual bomber think? Or the people who planned it?
I don't know. But it does make people think about the bombers, so I suppose to some degree terrorism works. Whether it ever achieves anything is a different question.