[Jimbo]

Alright, let me try to explain. Many of the terrorists who have carried out attacks against the US, including the hijackers on Sept 11th, were not very religious. Some came from famlies who were, by and large, secular.

Well, wait a second. I thought this was ISLAMIC terrorism. I thought these were ISLAMIC fundamentalists.

Some are. Most are not. 90 percent of the leadership is.

So why do these assclowns do this?

Mostly, it seems, the 'foot soldiers' are looking for some way to define themselves. Usually, they have had a completely unremarkable life and for some psychological reason (another discussion) they feel a need to make an impact.

Also, when Muslims travel away from their homelands, they are often descriminated against or somehow made to feel unwelcome in their new home. (the fault for this I think lies with Islamic schools and many Islamic leaders who have done little to prepare their brethern to interact with other societies). In such situations, individuals tend to seek out others like themselves.

At this point, in both the first example and the second, chance, chaos theory and social networks come into serious play. Particularly, as I mentioned earlier, if the person feels that all of his friends are into jihad, he will likely go along with it (again, this is a whole other discussion that delves into cultural anthropology).

If the individual has prior social contact with someone associated with the global jihad, they have a better chance of becoming a terrorist. If they do not, the chances they will become a terrorist drop precipitously (especially if they find some other way to define themselves or relate to their new environment).

So, for example, say Ahmed is an engineer who is underemployed in his native Egypt. He is educated and not very religious. He moves to Chicago to pursue the American dream, but he does not find work right away and does not pick up on English all that well or quickly. So he starts looking for some people to hang out with who are like him. Maybe, at this point, Ahmed sees a flyer for a group of young immigrant professionals. He goes to one of their coffee hours and runs into an older engineer who is from Jordan or Burkina Faso. Older guy says, "Hey I was once like you. Have a job." Ahmed works as an engineer at a doohicky plant making $60,000, finds a nice Algerian woman, marries and drive the family around their suburb in their C class Mercedes. Ahmed dies in the US at the ripe old age of 78 and seven of his grandchildren are there. One is a SFC in the Army.

Now, say a sexy girl in a tight mini walks by and Ahmed is distracted and misses the young professionals flyer. He's walking down the street kicking a rock and thinks, "Hey. Its Friday. I'll go catch some people as they come out of prayer at the mosque, since I know I can find someone who speaks Arabic and might be able to hook me up with a job." So Ahmed rolls down to the Mosque. As people are milling about after prayer, he sees a guy he recognizes from his flight over/apartment building/corner shop. He goes over and introduces himself. This guy says, come drink chai with us and rap about current events. So Ahmed does, but he does not agree with everything that is said. But he has new friends, so he sticks around. Some of his friends make comments about his clothes and his hair and how he looks at girls. So he starts dressing different and ...you get the picture.

However, in the example above, if Ahmed does not know anyone in the jihad and none of his buddies do either, they are not very likely to start up a cell of their own. Its possible, but not likely. But if Ahmed had a cousin in Egypt who knew a guy who was looking for people to go to Afghanistan or Bosnia or Chechnya or Iraq, well, then, these guys might get to go.

I'll write more later.