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What motivates Suicide Bombers?
Everyone seems to be assuming that the London suicide bombers and suicide bombers in general are motivated by hate of the West and non-muslims, mixed in with despair at the situation that they personally and Muslims in general find themselves. The debate on causes, root and otherwise, is predicated on these assumed motivations. I say assumed because there is no real evidence to back these contentions and to be frank, they look to me like projection - the commentator is imagining what would be needed to drive him/herself to such acts.A few years ago I was in the unsual position of observing groups of muslims and where I could ask myself 'What makes Muslims different?' The conclusions I came to lead me to think suicide bombers are motivated by something quite different and far more rational. About 5 years ago I was hospitalized in the Singapore General Hospital for well over a month. I shared a room with three other patients (not always the same three). The unit I was in dealt with a condition that Malays are particularly prone to. So, most of the time, there was me, a Malay and a Chinese in the room. There are a few things you need to understand for this story to make sense. Spend any time in hospital and you rapidly get extremely bored. I found I was watching Chinese historical dramas and Malay game shows (without subtitles), languages I don't understand. While, Singaporeans have a reputation as abiders by rules, I have never in my entire life come across a set of rules so comprehensively ignored as the hospital visiting rules. Large groups of visitors would arrive any time of the day or night, some even stayed in the hospital room. A family of three camped in the room for over a week while the father was in the hospital bed. You may think that being a Caucasian in Asia makes you stand out. In fact the opposite happens. You get ignored. Its like people edit you out of the scene. Many years ago I studied psychology and I still retain the habit of observing how people behave in certain situations. The groups were always segregated by race. Only Malays visited a Malay and only Chinese visited a Chinese. All Malays in Singapore are Muslims and almost no Chinese are. It was fairly normal to have a large group of Malays and a large group of Chinese in the room at the same time and how they behaved was strikingly different. The Chinese treated it like a social occasion, an opportunity to catch up with people and chat. They often brought food (for themselves not the patient) and their kids. The Malays by contrast were much more formal and functioned as a group where each knew their position and kept to it. There was none of the spontaneous social interaction of the Chinese. So what has this got to do with suicide bombers? The conclusion I reached is there was a very strong sense of social order in Malay and hence Muslim societies (which other experiences has reinforced). Each person has a well defined role and expected contribution. The phrase that came to mind was 'social cohesion'. The group is valued more highly than the individual, unlike the Chinese who are much more like Westerners in valuing the individual. In such an environment the notion of sacrificing oneself for the group, becomes more natural (as the group is more important than the indivdual). So when I read statements about Islamic 'militants' 'defending Islam', I think that is their real motivation. They don't hate us, nor do they feel despair at their own situation. What they feel is threatened by us - our mores, ideas, entertainments and culture in general, and that threat is existential. While we talk about cultural clash as a fairly abstract concept, to Muslims it's real and immediate. What they want most of all is to keep us away. The suicide bomber is sacrificing himself in order to protect the group by increasing the seperation from our society and its corruptive influence. Not only does this makes more sense to me than the hatred and despair thesis, it is also more rational because it is likely to work. This analysis leads me to conclude that attempts to integrate and assimilate Muslims will result in more suicide bombing. Its not the answer, at least in the medium term. It also leads me to conclude that societies with large Muslim minorities have a serious intractable problem that can only be solved by physically removing them. This will require that the social problems from Muslim minorities will have to get a lot worse before the hurdle of forced relocation can be crossed. Posted by: phil_b 2005-07-18 |
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