'Dying To Kill' -- Expert on Suicide Bombers Looks at London and Iraq
Pacific News Service, Q&A, Sandip Roy, Posted: Jul 22, 2005
Editor's Note: Mia Bloom is the author of "Dying to Kill -- the Allure of Suicide Terror" (Columbia University Press, June 2005). A professor of political science at University of Cincinnati, she is also a consultant to the New Jersey Office of Counter-Terrorism.
Q: Were you surprised that most of the bombers in London were British-born and bred?
A: I was surprised that they were born and bred in a democratic society. I certainly hope this is not a new stage in Al Qaeda’s approach, since these terrorists are far more difficult to weed out than imported ones.
Q: How do you gauge reaction to the suicide bombings?
A: I was pleased that the new imam of the Finsbury mosque condemned the attacks, as did the parents of the bombers. This is in great contrast to the Palestinian or Tamil bombers, who are lauded by their communities.
There is certainly an ideological split going on. A previously extremist cleric based in Europe, Abu Basir al Tartusi, published a fatwa on July 9 calling the London bombings “a disgraceful and shameful act, with no manhood, bravery, or morality.” Even Zarqawi's mentor Abu Muhammad al Maqdesi, a Jordanian-Palestinian Islamist scholar, publicly criticized the Islamist insurgents (and Zarqawi) for the mass killing of Muslims in Iraq.
Q: When does a group resort to suicide terror?
A: Very often it doesn’t occur in the first conflict, not the first Chechen war, not the first Iraq war or the first intifada. But when the first iteration of conflict has proven unsuccessful and the occupier resorts to increasingly severe counter-terrorism measures like gun ships and carpet bombings, suicide bombings increase.
Q: Who is a likely suicide terrorist recruit?
A: Initially Israel had a certain idea that they tend to be men between the ages of 18 and 30, unmarried and religious, with some previous experience of terrorism. But as soon as one develops an ethnic, racial or gender profile, organizations will use something new. For example, LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) terrorist Gayatri donned a suicide belt making it appear she was pregnant before assassinating Rajiv Gandhi in India.
So we need to develop profiles that are not based on someone’s last name or religion. Instead we must understand the physicality of suicide bombing -- how it impacts the way a person will walk across the room or sit down. And we must address the underlying motivation.
Q: Do women become suicide terrorists for different reasons than men?
A: There reasons are often more personal. In Chechnya, they are called Black Widows because they have usually lost loved ones. In Sri Lanka, many of the Tamil Black Tigresses had been raped.
Initially the Palestinian groups that had women bombers were all secular groups. Hamas and Islamic Jihad would mock these other organizations for hiding behind women’s skirts. But after Wafa Idris blew herself up, Hamas’ publication was besieged with letters from women wanting to become martyrs.
First Islamic Jihad allowed a woman bomber. There were pictures of her all over, wearing a head scarf but with bright red lipstick. She had just graduated from law school. It surprised people because she had every reason to live. In some of my interviews it came out the more attractive women was the one who was chosen. So the organization knew how to manipulate the media.
Q: How have religious groups been able to popularize suicide, despite its being forbidden by religions like Islam?
A: Islam differentiates between suicide as in, “I am depressed and I kill myself,” verses a willingness to lay my life on the line for my faith. In fact, if someone who is depressed approaches these groups, they are technically supposed to turn them away. You don’t want someone who is defective -- it takes away from the sanctity of the sacrifice.
There are also a great number of symbols associated with the suicide bomber. In Sri Lanka, the suicide bomber was separated from the group and has the last meal with the leader Prabhakaran, who is supposed to serve the food and do the dishes. In Palestine, the bomber wears white as if it’s a wedding, and a video is taken. So a series of symbols and traditions are built in to convince the larger population that this is a good thing.
Q: Is support for suicide bombing dependent on how it is funded?
A: Originally, lots of money from the Tamil diaspora was going to the LTTE. After 9/11, it became much more difficult to transfer funds because of laws to prevent terrorist financing. So the LTTE began to tax the local populations in the areas under its control and even issued speeding tickets. That’s when people rallied a little bit more toward sitting down at the negotiation table.
Also, when money is coming from outside, the different organizations will ramp up the violence to distinguish themselves from the crowd. This is a danger in Iraq. Before the war there was one group, the Baathists. Now there is a multiplicity of groups, with the possibility of all competing for outside funding.
Q: What about the idea that it is better to fight suicide bombers in Iraq instead of here?
A: That is ahistorical. Algerians began by attacking the French in Algeria, but eventually they went to Paris. My fear is that we are teaching a whole generation of people to actively hate the United States. So the concern is not this generation but the next.
Bloom spoke with PNS editor Sandip Roy, host of UpFront, New California Media’s weekly radio show.
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