On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:08:19 +0500 uvj at vsnl.com writes:
> Shane Mage wrote:
>
> > Ulhas asks:
> >
> >> ....However, the facts are that since 1980, suicide terrorist
> attacks from around the >world over half have been >secular.>
> >>
> >> I am surprised by the claim that of suicide terrorist attacks
> from around the world since 1980 over half have been secular. Can
> you say which secular causes have led to suicide attacks on this
> scale?
>
> > Mainly Tamil Tiger separatism in Sri Lanka.
>
> Yes, but do Tamil Tiger attacks explain over half of suicide attacks
> world over since 1980?
He goes into all this in greater depth in his 2003 paper, "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism" http://danieldrezner.com/research/guest/Pape1.pdf
There he wrote:
"First, although religious motives may matter, modern suicide terrorism is not limited to Islamic Fundamentalism. Islamic groups receive the most attention in Western media, but the world’s leader in suicide terrorism is actually the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group who recruits from the predominantly Hindu Tamil population in northern and eastern Sri Lanka and whose ideology has Marxist/Leninist elements.The LTTE alone accounts for 75 of the 186 suicide terrorist attacks from 1980 to 2001. Even among Islamic suicide attacks, groups with secular orientations account for about a third of these attacks (Merari 1990; Sprinzak 2000)."
Concerning the personal characteristics of suicide bombers, he writes (addressing the concerns of people like Wojtek :
"Second, although study of the personal characteristics of suicide attackers may someday help identify individuals terrorist organizations are likely to recruit for this purpose, the vast spread of suicide terrorism over the last two decades suggests that there may not be a single profile. Until recently, the leading experts in psychological profiles of suicide terrorists characterized them as uneducated, unemployed, socially isolated, single men in their late teens and early 20s (Merari 1990; Post 1990). Now we know that suicide terrorists can be college educated or uneducated, married or single, men or women, socially isolated or integrated, from age 13 to age 47 (Sprinzak 2000). In other words, although only a tiny number of people become suicide terrorists, they come from a broad cross section of lifestyles, and it may be impossible to pick them out in advance."
>
> Ulhas
>
>
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