These views, they are a-changing

My friend NeoFascist and I see eye to eye on most issues, and a few weeks ago we would have agreed on another issue: that terrorists lack hearts and minds, and that they are indoctrinated from birth with an America-hating ideology of terror. However, I no longer believe this to be entirely true. I found an amazing and intriguing piece by Marc Sageman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He studied hundreds of terrorists and came to some fascinating conclusions. The terrorist movement, upbringing, source of operations, and the characteristics of the men themselves was not what I expected at all. I highly recommend reading the entire thing, but here are some highlights. Sageman articulates my previous view of terrorists:

Most people think that terrorism comes from poverty, broken families, ignorance, immaturity, lack of family or occupational responsibilities, weak minds susceptible to brainwashing - the sociopath, the criminals, the religious fanatic, or, in this country, some believe they’re just plain evil.

This assertion is just plain incorrect.

Taking these perceived root causes in turn, three quarters of my sample came from the upper or middle class. The vast majority—90 percent—came from caring, intact families. Sixty-three percent had gone to college, as compared with the 5-6 percent that’s usual for the third world. These are the best and brightest of their societies in many ways.

Al Qaeda’s members are not the Palestinian fourteen-year- olds we see on the news, but join the jihad at the average age of 26. Three-quarters were professionals or semi- professionals. They are engineers, architects, and civil engineers, mostly scientists. Very few humanities are represented, and quite surprisingly very few had any background in religion. The natural sciences predominate. Bin Laden himself is a civil engineer, Zawahiri is a physician, Mohammed Atta was, of course, an architect

Sageman on the fuel for terrorist groups (besides hate), and how that affects the U.S.:

In order to really sustain your motivation to do terrorism, you need the reinforcement of group dynamics. You need reinforcement from your family, your friends. This social movement was dependent on volunteers, and there are huge gaps worldwide on those volunteers. One of the gaps is the United States. This is one of two reasons we have not had a major terrorist operation in the United States since 9/11. The other is that we are far more vigilant. We have actually made coming to the U.S. far more difficult for potential terrorists since 2001.

Thus, NeoFascist?, as much as I want to believe that these terrorists are mindless animals driven by a lifetime of vitriolic indoctrination, I am reluctant to discount the findings of Mr. Sageman. It would be so much easier to believe the former, wouldn't it? Both descriptions depict a horrible side of man, one that makes it easy to condemn, yet just as easy to fear that side within our own natures. But the latter, the description of a sane and educated man with a family, friends, and more worldwide experience than most of us--in other words, civilized--is still capable of terrorist acts, scares me to death. It proves that terrorism is not simply defined by what culture you were brought up in: "I am a product of the West, thus I am not a terrorist." That doesn't work anymore; the safety net of culture is gone. And the scariest revelation of all? We are just as capable of these horrific acts. Look at the man who walks into a restaurant crowded with women and children and presses the detonator. You could be him. I could be him. We are all depraved. There is no one righteous, no not one. I am not so haughty as to think that I am incapable of commiting "great" sin. None of us should be.

Yet still we should fight those who have chosen that path. They must be held responsible for their murderous actions, regardless of how susceptible we can be to those same actions. We should guard internally against the sinful lifestyle that entices every one of us, that lifestyle that we too often indulge in.

We are closer to sin than we think.