Longtime SM readers know that I enjoy making occasional forays into the past, so as to connect to the present. History is the most spiritual of subjects, more so than even religion in my eyes. Those who believe in reincarnation and karma will find as much wisdom in the recurring motifs of a history book as in any sacred text.
Yesterday we awoke to what may have been yet another attempted suicide bombing. The first words I heard this morning on NPR as my eyes opened were that police had shot “a South Asian man” in the Tube. About two months ago University of Chicago Professor Ropert Pape (who heads the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism) released his book Dying to Win on the history of suicide bombings. Here is an excerpt from his New York Times op-ed re-published on Truthout.org:
Over the past two years, I have compiled a database of every suicide bombing and attack around the globe from 1980 through 2003 – 315 in all. This includes every episode in which at least one terrorist killed himself or herself while trying to kill others, but excludes attacks authorized by a national government (like those by North Korean agents against South Korea). The data show that there is far less of a connection between suicide terrorism and religious fundamentalism than most people think.
The leading instigator of suicide attacks is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose members are from Hindu families but who are adamantly opposed to religion. This group committed 76 of the 315 incidents, more than Hamas (54) or Islamic Jihad (27). Even among Muslims, secular groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Al Aksa Martyr Brigades account for more than a third of suicide attacks.
What nearly all suicide terrorist attacks actually have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in seeking aid from abroad, but is rarely the root cause
Three general patterns in the data support these conclusions. First, nearly all suicide terrorist attacks – 301 of the 315 in the period I studied – took place as part of organized political or military campaigns. Second, democracies are uniquely vulnerable to suicide terrorists; America, France, India, Israel, Russia, Sri Lanka and Turkey have been the targets of almost every suicide attack of the past two decades. Third, suicide terrorist campaigns are directed toward a strategic objective: from Lebanon to Israel to Sri Lanka to Kashmir to Chechnya, the sponsors of every campaign – 18 organizations in all – are seeking to establish or maintain political self-determination.
But I don’t get it then. These “kids” in England are not seeking to establish or maintain political self-determination. They have it already. Also, they did not carry out their attacks as part of a political or military campaign. All that’s left of Al Qadea is an insane philosophy devoid of any tangible political objectives outside of countries like Iraq or Afghanistan. Why don’t these kids fit within Pape’s well thought out logic? To make personal sense of it I went back to the 12th Century. Before all these modern studies and modern motivations, there were other factors. Time Magazine focuses on a legend:
The promise of paradise has long been to drive men into battle. But what has brought me to Alamut is the legend, chronicled by Muslim and Crusader historians, that Hasan-i Sabbah, leader of the 12th century Middle Eastern terror cult known as the Assassins, had built a simulacrum here of the sensual delights of Paradise to quicken his men’s taste for martyrdom. The Assassins — a kind of al Qaeda of its time — operated by stealth, and armed only with daggers, they killed hundreds of princes, viziers, generals, and rival clergymen. According to legend, before being dispatched on a mission, an operative would be drugged into a deep sleep. He would wake in a lush garden filled with fountains, music and beautiful maidens. After cavorting briefly, he would be drugged back to sleep, and upon waking again would be told that he had tasted the paradise that awaited on the successful completion of his suicide mission.
Iranian officials are a bit ashamed of this fanatic lurking in their history, and tried to discourage me from going to Alamut, near Qazvin in northwestern Iran, about 80 miles northeast of Tehran. But Mehrdad and I pressed on anyway. We climb the steep rock outcrop atop which Alamut’s castle glowers over a valley of cherry orchards in full bloom. Inside the castle, however, we find no trace of the legendary pleasure garden — no crumbling stones of a fountain or wild thorns descended from the garden’s roses, only wind, gray rock and grasses. On the ramparts, we encounter a lone guard bearing a long staff.
“Was Sabbah the Osama bin Laden of his day?” I ask the guard before realizing that he was probably an Ismaili, one of the Assassins’ descendants who are today spread across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and follow the Aga Khan, a determinedly peaceful lot.
“Of course not,” he replies angrily. “Sabbah never killed innocents. And his men only used a dagger, never poisons or easy ways of killing. They studied their victims, spent years getting close to them before they struck.”
Now this begins to make more sense to me. The promise of virgins in a garden of Heavenly delights would be very motivating to a poor, brain-washed madrassa student from parts of the Middle East and Pakistan. It might be enough enticement to give up one’s life even in the absence of one of Pape’s factors. Failed suicide bombers that have been captured have previously described such motivations in fact. They just don’t know any better and are easily seduced by fanatics who themselves were seduced. Again though, these British kids knew better. One of the deceased bombers was described as quite the ladies man with easy access to virgins. The question one must ask is whether every individual’s garden of pleasure would contain the same enticements. I do not believe so. Fame and Ego are the virgins of those raised in free western societies. Relegated to the growing ethnic ghettos of Europe, these kids may have been seduced by the desire to become someone. Their masters in the camps of Pakistan seduced them in much the same way that Hassan-i-Sabah did in his time. They put the false fear of imminent conquest in their minds.
Hasan was extremely strict and disciplined. The abrogation of Islamic law (sharia) occurred under a later Grand Master, Hasan II, in 1174. If hashish was used by the community (and this is uncertain) it probably also occurred later.
Not much is known about Hasan, but legends abound as to the tactics used to induct members into his quasi-religious political organization. A future assassin was subjected to rites very similar to those of other mystery cults in which the subject was made to believe that he was in imminent danger of death. But the twist of the assassins was that they drugged the person to simulate a “dying” to later have them awaken in a garden flowing with wine and served a sumptuous feast by virgins. The supplicant was then convinced he was in Heaven and that Sabbah was a minion of the divinity and that all of his orders should be followed, even to death. This legend derives from Marco Polo, who visited Alamut just after it fell to the Mongols in the thirteenth century.
America doesn’t have many ethnic ghettos. Rightly or wrongly our immigration policies for many decades now have been biased in favor admitting the best and the brightest, who economically assimilate much better. This demographic is hopefully (for now) less likely to succumb to terrorist ideology because they have so much more to lose. The out-of-control U.S. prison population however is another concern. This segment of our society has many things in common with the stagnant pools that breed terrorists in Europe. Politicians are starting to notice as well. In the past week I’ve twice heard that in America we should be more worried about those who converted to Islam in prison.
I am sure that this post will generate much discussion on a variety of topics I have touched on but my main point was to reference history. If only we were all forced to learn about the past 🙂
Cicatrix, See here. I made the connection before most of the media (modesty aside 🙂
Oh snap! That’ll teach me to link to anything without checking Sepia first 🙂
And speaking of checking Sepia first.. I wrote this:
and now see that Manish wrote a whole cicatrix on said:
er, that should be post.
Cicatrix, Do you hold a copyright on that oath or can we include it at the bottom of our website? 🙂
Abhi, it’s all yours. Just don’t ban me for my next vitriolic rant against the LTTE 🙂
Cicatrix, I have no interest in turning this into a pro/anti tiger/GoSL debate. My point was that you insinuated a false analogy between the tamil youth diaspora and the latest islamist suicide bombers in London.
Maybe i’m misunderstanding, but from this I assume you’re saying that tamil youth in the west have become more aggressive about the tamil cause and are more vulnerable to being manipulated into supporting or engaging in terrorism as a result.
I think the opposite is true, we grew up in the west and were educated in western schools with western values. Canadian culture particularly puts a lot of emphasis on humanism. What evidence is there of tamil youth in the west being actively involved in the violent independence struggle? I haven’t seen any evidence of it.
Anyways, my point is that your assertion that the tamil youth diaspora have “amplified” the views of their parents is wrong. Tamil kids don’t sit around mulling their grievances with the sri lankan government and plotting revenge. Most of us would prefer a peaceful and equitable solution – equitable seems to be the point of contention.
This is pretty off topic, but I just wanted to emphasize that there is a substantive difference between terrorism-for-ideology and terrorism-for-independence. Whether or not you agree with the means, the desired ends are different and the two shouldnt be compared.
Anathan, I have no interest in being the pro-GoSL side of this debate. But I will contest your arguments defending the LTTE. This struggle for “independance” hardly rewards the Tamils – they are the collateral damage, they are the victims, they are the cannon fodder, they are forced by the LTTE to participate. How will the LTTE (which has so far ruthlessly suppressed dissent) lead a democratic nation, should “independance” be achieved? Do you really think the leaders will step aside?
Also, every arguement I’ve read for Eelam stakes a “we came first” claim, dating to when Ravana kidnapped Sita. Apparently Ravana was Tamil. So..let me see…it’s ok to create a bloody mess now to correct something that happened in mythology? Oh yes, I forgot, these are *facts”. The site says “The Tamils are an ancient people with a history dating back to atleast 2,500 years” and that “The Sinhala people trace their origins in the island to the arrival of Prince Vijaya from Bengal in India, about 2500 years ago.” Is it just me, or are BOTH NUMBERS THE SAME? And as for “the proto history of Ceylon could be traced back to atleast 5000 years to the period of Raman of the epic Ramayanam” – well, suddenly those proto people are Tamil. No mention at all of the veddas, the hunter-gatherer tribe that still lives in the Sinharaja forests, decimated in numbers, neglected by everyone. They don’t have a voice, so no one speaks to fact that they more than anyone else have a true claim to the island.
Look, I never said this:
You might try improving your reading comprehension before writing debate points. I never even said anything about “Tamil youth” I said
and there is a huge difference, since I keep saying that most Tamils don’t support the LTTE.
For a list of Sinhala grievances this might be worth checking out, if anyone is actually curious about this stuff. Be warned that it is written in an injured tone, and against a lurid yellow background that tends to cause eye-strain.
Here is an amusing spat between the US ambassador to SL and the Tamil Guardian. Dated March 2001, before the US cared so much about terrorism. The ambassador rejects claims for a seperate nation, and the Guardian huffily tells him to rot in hell. (Not in so many words, of course.)
No, I wasn’t trying to insinuate anything. I’m sorry if my post, #36, wasn’t particularly articulate. I thought my intentions would be clear since I started off saying “trying to explain/understand exactly why people turn to terrorism – the motivations, circumstances etc – seems a bit foolhardy to me. Too many factors, variables, cultural unknowns etc.” With that disclaimer, I clambered onto a creaky limb.
I’ve spent almost every post since then trying to clarify my point, so please stop returning to that one post to find fodder for your arguments.
My bad, I saw the two as interchangeable. My point stands though – “young LTTE supporters in North America” aren’t involved in terrorism. No suicide bombings have been carried out by them and you have no proof that they have “amplified” the views of their parents. So don’t equate them with the london bombers.
Fine, point taken. I still think it’s a misleading analogy, but whatever.
There is no similarity between Hassan Bin Sabbah and Osama Bin Laden. Hassan Bin Sabbah oredered to kill the Kings the theier courtiers who declared war on him and killed his people. those who declared war against him were to be given biffitted reply. He never killed innocent people. Even at the time of wars he prefered to kill one man rather that to cleanse the whole army. So it is my request to not to match the great hero Hassan bin Sabbah and Osama bIn Laden.( who used to kill general Public)
Pardon me for my whitey ignorance, but if a Sikh ain’t wearing a turban and a beard and a Muslim ain’t wearing a skullcap and a lunghi, how DOES one tell the difference?
i’m talking about the sikhs and muslims that do dress old school. Ask any Sikh in the US what they felt like after 9/11 as everyone accused them of being Taliban and they were getting beaten up and killed. That won’t make news here bcuz as i’ve said before, hate crimes only happen when the victims are black, or sometimes latino.
i’ve never heard anyone call hassan bin sabbah a great hero, but certainly there’s some popular sentiment that osmama bin laden is a hero too.
today, it’s nearly impossible to kill the tyrants and their couriers – not only do they have the best protection money can buy, but killing the leader of one administration won’t mean an end to neo-colonial meddling in the arab-muslim world.
one might also argue that even ‘innocent people’ are responsible for said policies in ways that weren’t true in previous centuries – after all, it’s believed we live in a democracy, and that the authority of our leaders is only legitimate pending the approval of the majority. in the past, it was believed that a king was appointed by god over a given territory, and the people had only to obey. in short, it’s only a difference in tactics.
Your illustration of Sabbah is entirely inaccurate. Read Farhad Duftary’s extensive writings on the issue in his books “The Assassin Legends” and “The Ismailis.” The fact of the matter is that the Ismailis of Alamut were the complete opposite of Al-Qaeda. The Alamut library was a known place of learning, and was visited by prominent Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars of the day (that library was destroyed in the Mongol invasion). Very different from the fascist and brain-dead ideology of the Salafists and Jihadists today.
The fact of the matter was that it was the rival Sunni Muslim and adverse Christian Sects that were the enemies of Alamut and the Ismailis, and it was they who spread the “Assassin” myths about the drugs and the gardens. Simply fake.
Hassan-i-Sabbah lives on:
I find the LTTE’s characterization as Marxist-Leninst quite comical given the group’s rejection of this philosophy despite the presence of some members with seasonal Marxist inclinations. Indeed, the LTTE pretty much politically and militarily decimated other rebel Tamil groups in the 1980s that did officially toe the socialist line. This is still very much evident if one reads through the Fourth International’s World Socialist Website section on Sri Lanka. Its movement is motivated by ethnic grievances rather than any imagined or real emancipation of the lower classes. To also answer Razib’s question, it would seem that most members would be of Hindu origin as population demographics would dictate this but I do find that a number of its more influential spokespersons are Christians and as in Latin American movements, there is quite a bit of fraternizing between the Church and the LTTE in Tamil areas. Definitely more so than between the Temple and the LTTE as I doubt if the latter’s formal mandate for anti-caste agitations and “pure Tamil” language movement sits well with the conservative Saivite population of the Jaffna Peninsula that adores its caste heirachy and venerates its sanskritized rituals.
Ismail Kaygusuz in his book Hasan Sabah and Alamut (in Turkish) wrote the following:
“Hasan Sabbah’s Alamut nation built on the basis of peace, equality and equal distribution lasted for 176 years. Alamut was a nation stretching from the Pamir mountains to the southeastern Mediterranean and Palestine governed by 300 head, who worked in coordination without private property, under fort settlements called “Dar ul Hijar†(migrant homes
“Hasan Sabbah did not train assassins (killers), not did he establish a narcotic heaven in his fortress nation as claimed by his enemies. But the fact that his enemies (the Sunni Baghdad Caliphs, the Selchuk Sultans, Crusaders, Mongols) were superior in numbers, propagated his Alamut defense in a guerrilla image. It is known that Hasan Sabbah trained an armed unit of select warriors (fedayin). Contrary to these “fedayin†claims, assassinations were conducted only against officials, who were oppressors.â€
Ismail Kaygusuz in his book Hasan Sabah and Alamut (in Turkish) wrote the following:
“Hasan Sabbah’s Alamut nation built on the basis of peace, equality and equal distribution lasted for 176 years. Alamut was a nation stretching from the Pamir mountains to the southeastern Mediterranean and Palestine governed by 300 head, who worked in coordination without private property, under fort settlements called “Dar ul Hijar†(migrant homes
“Hasan Sabbah did not train assassins (killers), not did he establish a narcotic heaven in his fortress nation as claimed by his enemies. But the fact that his enemies (the Sunni Baghdad Caliphs, the Selchuk Sultans, Crusaders, Mongols) were superior in numbers, propagated his Alamut defense in a guerrilla image. It is known that Hasan Sabbah trained an armed unit of select warriors (fedayin). Contrary to these “fedayin†claims, assassinations were conducted only against officials, who were oppressors.â€