What makes someone become a terrorist?

christiefan915 said:
:rolleyes: Nobody's taking away your guns and there has never been a credible action to do so. Nobody's taking away anybody's right to say dumb, stupid and inflammatory things and if that were the case Trump would have been neutralized months ago.

Don't you boys have anything better to do than wave around your guns and embrace conspiracy theories?
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Only because there's a sizable opposition. If the Dems ever got something along the lines of a Jeffersonian majority, the Second Amendment would be powerless to protect gun rights.
 
christiefan915 said:
Excerpts from an article are for all the people who look at this as a black and white issue. It has nothing to do with "they hate us for our freedoms."

Experts find extremists often have some traits in common

"...The datelines of horrific terrorist attacks seem to pile up relentlessly: Paris, Paris again, San Bernardino, the Sinai, Kenya, Mali, the beaches of Tunisia and Libya. What is going on?

It’s a simple question, but you won’t get easy answers from the people who actually talk to extremists, like Michael Kenney of the University of Pittsburgh. “For decades we have tried to understand what makes someone a terrorist,” said Mr. Kenney, an associate professor of international affairs at Pitt who has a doctorate from the University of Florida and who has studied terror and other illegal networks.

“Although scholars have been able to identify some common traits that apply across some cases but not all, we’ve never succeeded in developing a single behavioral profile of a terrorist. And many people don’t believe that’s even possible. The phenomenon is so diverse.”

Diverse because some terrorists acting in the name of Islam appear to be quite religious, others common thugs acting under religious cover. Some appear to be mentally ill, others sane. Some extremists are poor, but some of the most notorious were college-educated professionals, including Osama bin Laden, the San Bernardino killers and the lead 9/​11 hijacker. Large majorities reject attacks on civilians. Targeting all Muslims for blanket bans would alienate the very ones with the most credibility to tackle extremist minority within, Mr. Kenney and others said.

“For most Muslims now, the thing they appreciate about the West is that they can practice their religion freely without being harassed by non-Muslim neighbors,” said Mr. Kenney, adding that they often find more religious liberty here than in their Muslim homelands. “If we lose that, that will be huge. That will be an awful development for us as a country, and it won’t make us safer from the thing we all hate, which is terrorism.”

A terrorist is made of a complex brew of factors — often involving fierce allegiance to a group identity, a sense of real or imagined grievances against their group, a narrowing mindset that alienates friends and family beyond fellow extremists. Marc Sageman, a former U.S. intelligence officer, a psychiatrist and Maryland-based security consultant, studied more than 30 violent insurgent movements dating back to the French Revolution, including groups with ideologies rooted in secularism, Buddhism and white supremacy.

“I found no case of radicalization without identification with the group,” Mr. Sageman said in a 2014 talk at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute. “It’s really about identity, not ideology. Ideology can help define your identity, but it’s really about your identity.”

Sometimes terrorists show evidence of feeling they have failed at life and think they can redeem it violently. In these ways they can resemble mass killers of other stripes. And it is why those wondering whether San Bernardino was a case of terrorism or workplace violence were keeping open a third option — that it might have been both.

Mr. Kenney saw some common traits during the more than 100 interviews in Britain he conducted with those he describes as “Salafi jihadi extremists” — those proclaiming a highly politicized, polemical and strict vision of Islam at odds with a hostile West and often with other Muslims. He also interviewed plenty of Salafis who deeply opposed these extremists. They weren’t violent actors at the time he spoke with them, but he was not surprised that some later went to the self-proclaimed Islamic State caliphate in the Middle East to join and even die for the militant group.

Many of the young people he interviewed were engaged in “youthful soul-searching,” said Mr. Kenney. “They're struggling in their personal lives and looking for a personal sense of identity. This is what came out in interview after interview — ‘What is my life about? What is the purpose for all this?’ ” But, he added, that’s hardly an indicator of terrorism. “That’s what just about any youngster goes through, the vast majority of which never become jihadists.” And for some who do, “it’s not about the ideology as much as it is about hanging out with their buddies.” Or adventure. “They’re a little bored.” Suicide bombing has proved a lethally effective weapon of insurgency, with the added bonus for true believers that even if they fail tactically, paradise awaits them.

(Continued)

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/na...meone-become-a-terrorist/stories/201512200045
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Dumb ass liberals trying to write a scholarly article on terrorism, and find out why their causes are just. Reminds me of how John Kerry said the Hebdo attacks were rationale.

Liberals just can't accept that people hate them, and want to hill them for no reason, or for a corrupt faith. Liberals are deranged and dangerous in their thinking.

They will go to their deaths to defend Islam, but will bury you if you are a Christian. How wacky is that?
 
Damocles said:
I like saying Iowegians... because they get annoyed.
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That's okay. I say Warshington, CA (pronounced with the Schwarzenegger accent), Texass, Illin-nois (it looks like a French word, so there!), Misery, Alabubba, Loseranna, Ar-Kansas (yes, it's mostly southern abuse), Flo-Rida, Lesser Carolina, Vuh-ginia/WV, Mary Land, Deli-Ware, New Hamp-Shire, Connect-T-Cut, and I might have forgotten a few. I guess I also say Knee-Braska.
 
Threedee said:
That's okay. I say Warshington, CA (pronounced with the Schwarzenegger accent), Texass, Illin-nois (it looks like a French word, so there!), Misery, Alabubba, Loseranna, Ar-Kansas (yes, it's mostly southern abuse), Flo-Rida, Lesser Carolina, Vuh-ginia/WV, Mary Land, Deli-Ware, New Hamp-Shire, Connect-T-Cut, and I might have forgotten a few. I guess I also say Knee-Braska.
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Floriduh, Texass, Kansass and Arkansass...Lol
 
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