Why smart people become suicide bombers

What worried many people in the wake of the recent attempted attacks in London and Glasgow, (including Alice Miles in this superb column) was that the alleged attackers were doctors. A tough point to come to terms with if, like me in the past, you argue that there’s a link between social deprivation and terrorism.

Tim Harford, the undercover economist, argues that we shouldn’t be surprised when the most audacious suicide bombings are carried out by highly educated people. For terrorist groups, it’s a matter of brutal efficiency:

All in all, the research that professor Krueger gathers together suggests that if there is a link between poverty, education, and terrorism, it is the opposite of the one popularly assumed. We should not be surprised to find that terrorists can add up, read, and even write prescriptions.

What is more surprising is that the attackers in London and Glasgow were so incompetent. Claude Berrebi and Harvard economist Efraim Benmelech studied —there's no nice way to put this — the human-resources policy of Palestinian terrorist groups. They found that older, better-educated terrorists secured more important suicide missions and killed more people. Having more than a high-school education doubles the chance of escaping capture, for example.

If the terrorists in this case do turn out to be the doctors and other professionals who are, as I write, suspected of the crime, it would demonstrate that even years of education and experience do not guarantee a successful attack. Blowing up innocent people is obviously harder than it looks, and for that we can all be grateful.

So intelligent, yes. But also out of their right minds.

Murad Ahmed

Comments

[Tim Worstall]

Ahem. Harford.

[Roundhead]

terrorism caused by "social deprivation"?

have you been asleep for at least six years?

[abdel kader]

I think it is more a matter of fanatacism rather than social deprivation. Add to that a deep hatred & loathing to others. The terrorists whether educated or not, have their own reasons but they have one thing in common, they are murderers. There is no religious reward for what they do, but loads of punishment.

[Ben]

Abdel; there is a fine, yet important line between terrorism and murder. Technically you have to kill someone to be a murderer.

As a side point, these doctors could have caused just as much terror by leaving empty suitcases around UK airports and train stations and then phoning in bomb hoaxes. The objective of terrorism is to create terror, thereby upsetting the "normal" routine of daily public life. An act of terrorism does not require murder, and is probably a more effective strategy in the long term without it.

The fact that they actually tried to blow something up shows that they must have missed their lecture on the Hippocratic Oath, or were completely bonkers, or a combination of the two.

[Joel]

Odd that the photo the editors chose to illustrate "intelligent suicide bombers" was of a vehicle packed with shrapnel, but no explosives: a failure at both bombing and suicide, due to a profound ignorance of chemistry.

[SpacePunk]

You wanna know why smart people turn into bombers? Because we are surrounded by stupidity. Every where we look there are just a bunch of slack jawed apes.

[Simon]

It is important not to lazily label these people as "mad" or "bonkers".

It is tempting to assume that anybody who goes on a suicide mission is mentally ill, but it is simply not true. Soldiers from many nations, including Britain, have taken part in attacks where death is a certainty. Recently it was reported that RAF pilots were willing to crash their planes into a hypothetical hijacked airliner to prevent a 9/11 style attack on London. The RAF in World War II also had a stated policy of targetting civilians.

Suicide attacks are a rational strategy. They have a much higher kill rate than conventional terrorism.

Let's not kid ourselves that we are facing people who are bonkers. We are facing a sophisticated and rational foe.

[Varun Mahan]

This is poor article, completely brushing aside the real issues, ignoring the foreign policies that have existed since the the birth of the Empire. "As you bomb, you will be bombed" I think were Osama's words. Our country has wreaked havoc on an entire nation, stolen its oil, broadcasted the death and destruction to intelligent people who consider themselves part of the same nation by religion. Their reaction is knee jerk perhaps, but not crazy. After all it not as though we consider our WW2 vets crazy. Last time i pay attention to Daniel Finklestein.

[Derek S]

No, not out of their minds, just followers of a 'religion' which is itself a sickness.

[Alan Black]

Ooh... Varun, you almost had me up to the point when you misattributed this piece to Daniel Finkelstein, when Murad Ahmed's name is mentioned twice at the bottom of the piece. Freudian slip perhaps?

Also the part where you say the nation broadcasts the "death and detruction". I think you'll find the nation would like nothing better than for scenes of its wars not to be broadcast. It's the free press that broadcasts it, the most inflammatory usually coming from Al Jazeera.

Similarly your willingness to speak on behalf of an alleged "nation of Islam" makes the rest of your stand less than convincing (as well a very superficial and largely fallacious analysis of the history of Islamic extremism)

This was a good article, though I'd replace "smart" with "educated" in the title.

[mj duff]

Doctors willing to chuck it all?
Could our health care system be that bad? Doctors are trained to sell drugs and forced to deny care to patients because of cost. Kind of depressing.

[Brien Comerford]

No matter how smart a person is they can be brainwashed at a young age to hate and kill in the name of God. Many Muslims are taught that Jews, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists are evil and should be killed. Peaceful Hindus and Jains will not kill animals or people because they are educated to believe that all life is sacred.

[william]

I think we should congratulate the government for saving our lives - the brilliant schools for making sure the 21/7 bombers couldn't do their sums and the NHS for supplying dud syringes.

[wayne]

Intelligent! only by modern standards, by traditional, dimwits.

[H E Torrance]

How many innocent patients fell victim to their evil...

[riki]

I guess we're lucky they didn't think to use germ warfare. After all educated doctors would be in a better position, than most, to take this kind of approach. Which could of course be potentially more deadly than any car bomb.

[lexish]

Since when did intelligence/good education = high moral values? What about Plato, Voltaire and Nietzche? Why not just face facts, these guys who choose to suicide bomb are a part of mass death cult with all the acoutriments of our liberal blindness and a horde of Muslim apologists in their wake. Get a grip people.

[solicitr]

"Our country has wreaked havoc on an entire nation, stolen its oil.... "

Why do the jihad-supporters and the western Left continue to recite this untruth? Where is all this 'stolen' Iraqi oil- perhaps the White House basement? In fact it's in the ground in Iraq, from whence it is sold at market price and the proceeds put in the Iraqi treasury.

It's also worth noting that the vast preponderance of havoc wreaked in Iraq has been wreaked by Iraqis. But of course to a certain mindset nobody can be a villain other than Westerner.

[cebceb]

The fact that they were trainee/trained doctors does not mean they were bright. There is a difference between knowing whats inside their university books and using common sense.

The sheer fact that the plots appear to have been so poorly planned and carried out, just further dampens the little hope I have for one day finding a doctor within the NHS that has the ability for using something other than their text-book knowledge, like the other half of their brain perhaps and intuition?

[Denis Brown]

The assumption that even clever people can become terrorists is wrong at the very start. Social deprivation does not mean your wits will not be as sharp as someone who went to Oxbridge - it only means you are unlikely to be as academically learned and have to fight for what you want instead of having opportunities handed to you on a plate.

[dave mcdowell]

The terrorists i encountered in Northern Ireland were very different to the Islamic terrorists who threaten us today. The Islamic terrorist is governed by not by a belief that through struggle and conflict you can obtain your goals. No, we have to see it clearly that their book, says certain unpalatable things which they choose to use as a justification for he use of violence. It is to please their god that they are doing this. They are being instructed by men who, just like recruiters in the IRA, manipulate them skillfully, to the point of committing random acts of murder and all in the name of their god.I think a clear distinction needs to be drawn between Islamic martyrdom and the Christian martyrdom that is going on in the world today,virtually unreported in our press. These unfortunate people "sacrifice" their lives by commiting murder to "appease" their god's apparent anger with anyone who will not submit to him. The Christian martyr, like the founder of their faith, sacrifices his or her life for the good of others, that their will be benefit resulting from that sacrifice. It is an important point tha is totally not discussed by the media but one that needs making.

[GJ Garrett]

You're confusing "doctors" and "highly educated" with "smart people." They don't necessrily go together. Any average-intelligence person who can memorize a lot of facts can become a doctor. And there are plenty of unschooled people who can outthink them.

[Barbara]

These people are not crazy, they are evil. Only a person who has voluntarily rejected his or her humanity could behave like this. A crazy person can commit an evil act without being evil, but an evil person who commits crazy acts remains evil. Terrorists are monsters in human flesh; we must recognize this and deal with them accordingly.

[james]

You are confusing educated and intelligent, there's a difference...........

[Mike]

Varun:
I'm curious... when did "buying" become the same thing as "stealing"? The last time I checked, the nations of Europe buy their oil on the international market. So where is the stealing happening?

Also, you seem to think that the invasion of Iraq is the cause of international terrorism. So... how does one explain 9/11? I seem to remember that preceding the attack on Afghanistan or Iraq. Actually, I think the terrorism of 9/11 caused the invasion of Iraq, NOT the other way around (which you seem to suggest).

[Paul Danson]

Well Alan it can be a bit confusing to those of s not clever enough to be suicide bombers, what with Danny's face plastered over every screen!

(and yes 'smart' is just the wrong word)

[Kostich]

You have to ask yourself who benefits most from terrorism to solve this problem.

[stuart munro]

Perhaps the most frightening thing is the evident loss of acumen among physicians. Not since Watson has Britain been served by such a second-rate crew. A doc who can't even think up a decent bomb doesn't really seem very likely to diagnose your average cryptic ailment correctly...

[Daci]

Before rushing to any answers I would suggest reading The Islamist by Ed Husain. The book is illuminating, and quite frightening to some extent. I did not finished reading it yet but it gave another perspective of the muslims, Islam and organisation such Muslim Council and Hizb ut-Tarhir.

[Sam Deakins]

What makes you think these morons are smart in the first place? Because they are doctors and such? Quasi-morons come in all occupations. Just seems most of these morons are of the Islamic occupation lately.

[Ben]

You cannot address why people become terrorists without considering the root cause of the terrorism and the issues that stem from it which lead to radicalization. The Israel/Palestine conflict is central to this as Britain and the US are seen as enemies of Islam because we wholeheartedly support Israel. This, of course would radicalize even educated Muslims as they see their Muslim brothers being blown to bits by American made helicopters around the world (this is what THEY see). You cannot simply call them all nutters as obviously that is going to create even more of them as they feel further victimised as a religion. We all need to start talking about their perception of Israel's continued occupation if Islamic terrorism has even a hope of dissipating. (I'm not saying Israel should not exist. Islamists see it as an unjustified occupation of their holy land that they, and other religions had been living in peacefully for decades on decades prior to zionism, and they'll continue to justify attacking us on that basis until we deal with it.)

[Nora]

I have a very smart computer. It helps me do some very complex tasks. The software is flexible and allows me to fit it to my needs. The same software is also responsible for driving me mad. It fails, it falls over and crashes, it mangles my data. I wouldn't dream of life without it though. Same with humans - some reliable some less so. Some loopy whilst seemingly intelligent....