Studies on radicalization & comments

[Sarajevo071]

You know I used to have a very narrow view of suicide jihadists, but after reading the post on the making of a French Jihadist, I realize I need to understand the different motivations better. Its not enough for me to say they are duped by an interpretation of religious faith to travel to another place and commit themselves to the fight as a human PGM. I feel like I don't know the enemy in this regard. Any thoughts by some of you who have done the tough research?
Thanks, Rob

No one is “duped” nor do they have “mercenaries” like some here like to think… Only mercenaries that I know of are those from private companies in Iraq and Afghanistan… Now about they “ideology” or “motivation”, no one can give one satisfactory answer since they motivations are different and somewhat complicated… Also, be sure that you make distinction between Islamic martyrs (suicide attacks) and Islamic jihadi fighters (guerilla that fights to live so they can fight other day). Also there are different motivations in older versus younger jihadi, different motivations in born Muslims versus converts, and different motivations between different schools of thoughts in Islam.

Hope this will guide you toward better understanding of this topic.