A recent Pew Research Survey (see: Muslims In America) revealed something that should be of primary interest to our leaders in Washington. According to the survey, 8% of all American Muslims between 18-29 believe there are times when suicide bombings are acceptable.

While the survey doesn’t indicate whether or not those in that 8% would commit such a crime, the fact that they can see some validity behind the action could indicate that there are some 56,000 young Muslims out there who would, if they had the chance and ability, participate in a suicide bombing on American soil.

It is easy to try and blame poverty, a lack of education, even a problem with social morality for the increase of suicide bombers. Even our President has bought into the notion:

"We fight poverty because hope is the answer to terror... We will challenge the poverty and hopelessness and lack of education and failed governments that too often allow conditions that terrorists can seize".

Research conducted over the past few years challenges the once accepted theory that suicide bombers- who are predominantly males between the ages of 18-29, are mentally ill, poor, disenfranchised and uneducated.

Most of those engaging in suicide bombing are noted as being young, middle class, they may have had difficult lives growing up (traumas, abuse, etc.), and have at least a High School level education.

They are generally not impoverished, and showed no signs of mental pathology.

But there are two things which they do seem to have in common which could help in addressing the issue of suicide bombers: 1) either they or their parents come from countries where there are limited political freedoms, and, 2) they have strong religious or political beliefs.

While there are many Muslims out there who decry this sort of thing as contrary to the Koranic teachings, there are those who are insistent on what they perceive as true Islam. They make up the martyrs and those who encourage suicide attacks. They have redefined such words as "attack" and "innocent" so as to blur the distinction between war and curtailment of terrorist activity.

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS and SUICIDE BOMBING

Perhaps no greater controversy exists than that of the role of Islam when it comes to acts of suicide bombing. Some believe that Islam encourages- if not outright commands- a person to kill themselves in the "cause of Allah". Others claim that JIHAD (struggle) can apply to anything and that Islam detests suicidal acts.

As with any controversial issue the truth likely lay somewhere in the middle, in between both points of view.

In order to understand why Islam plays a predominant role in the actions of those who would make themselves "martyrs" for Allah, one first has to look at how they’re taught to view the world- in particular the Western world- around them.

Sociologists suggest that one of the identifiers of a cult is that they tend to enforce a separation between the cult member and the world around them. This is not esoteric separatism. It is a type of radical, mental isolationism which has, at it’s core, a sense of personal and religious elitism. What we often summarize as "holier than thou" but with an extremist bent which makes it perfectly acceptable to see certain persons or groups as expendable- not based on anything they do- rather- based upon a holiness perception.

He also blames the presence of the American military in Bangkok for "the spread of corruption and deviation there" as well as claiming that:

All of this is seen, not merely as a degradation of a particular society, but as a "crusade" against Islam. Al-Fahd doesn’t see this degradation as insular. Rather, he sees it as having an affect on Islam.

To wit: the great Satan and all of it’s minions are trying to demoralize Islam, to bring it down MORALLY, not just politically. The war, therefore, isn’t simply a war of political ideologies, it is also a war of moral ideologies deeply rooted in a religious system.

What could be more appealing to a young Muslim male, age 19 or 20, who feels he has no real purpose or mission in life? Who has been emotionally, if not physically, separated from the world around him? Who sees bad things going on in the world and who, in order to make sense of things, finds an answer for where to lay the blame?

The Koran is specific in it’s assessment of the Muslim:

"You are the best nation that has ever been raised for mankind; you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah. Had the people of earlier revelation believed, it would have been for their own good. Few of them are believers, while most of them are evildoers".

The "people of earlier revelation" are the Jews and Christians.

America, for many Muslims, is seen as a "Christian" country by default. Therefore, Christians (aka Crusaders) birthed a nasty, evil, Satanic nation and it continues to be viewed this way by not a few Muslims around the world but in particular, those who are bent towards suicide bombing attacks. They believe they are defending Islam- not from extinction- but from infiltration by the unholy world around them.

In order to make the point that America is in a war against Islam itself leaders like Al-Fahd ask the question: why doesn’t the United States go after other groups? And lists off such organizations as the Tamil Tigers, the IRA, the Mafia, and other such groups whose crimes do not include threats against the whole of the United States.

But for the young Muslim man who is looking to his religion for meaning and purpose, and who may already see America as an enemy for it’s support of Israel, this makes sense. America isn’t after terrorists- America is after ISLAM. The idea that most of the attacks against America over the past 20 plus years have come from Islamic extremist groups never occurs to him.

He is also given a laundry list of America’s attempts to rule the world by eradicating other groups of people: one hundred million native Americans exterminated; two million African-American slaves exterminated; Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Viet Nam war; etc. And in more recent times, the claims that American embargos and bombardments have killed one million Iraqi children; that thousands of newborn infants are born blind due to lack of insulin; and the list goes on and on.

But the problem with the laundry list is that it’s a supply of half (if that) of the actual story. So, while the media bombards a young Muslim male- who loves his religion and believes he should defend it as per Koranic edict- with images of Abu Ghraib and talks about the "rights" of those detained at GITMO- all of which makes it appear as if there really IS a war against Islam going on- the input of religious leaders only separates him even more from the society at large.

Taken all together, the only conclusion the young person can draw is that he must (or she must) defend their faith, if necessary, with their very lives. This is the stuff "martyrs" are made of. At least in the minds of those who believe that they must die in the cause of Allah lest the West take them over.

"Therefore, we must not be surprised that the Disbelievers are planning to destroy Islam and Muslims, because that is one of their main tasks, even though it is impossible for them to achieve, as their plot will always be exposed until the Day of Judgement. Allah (SWT) says: ‘We will test you in order to see who the Mujaahid (warrior) among you is and who are firm…’ [EMQ Muhammad, 47:31]"

To think that this will go away when those 18-29 are older, or gone, is wishful thinking. The war on terror is, by default, a war on Islam. Not only because of those Muslims who actively promote and encourage terrorism, but also because of those who sit passively by, content that THEY aren’t into such things, without realizing they, too, could be targets.

There is another generation to come. That generation will grow up to blow up, unless Muslims themselves do not take steps to stop it from happening. In April of 2007, MEMRI television disclosed the use of Mickey Mouse by Islamists in training children for Jihad. A transcript of the video makes it’s intention quite clear:

Host Saraa, a young girl: Sanabel, what will you do for the sake of the Al-Aqsa Mosque? How will you sacrifice your soul for the sake of Al-Aqsa? What will you do?

Sanabel, young girl on phone: I will shoot.

Farfour, a Mickey Mouse character in a tuxedo: Sanabel, what should we do if we want to liberate...

Sanable: We want to fight.

Farfour: We got that. What else?

Saraa: We want to...

Sanabel: We will annihilate the Jews.

Saraa: We are defending Al-Aqsa with our souls and our blood, aren't we, Sanabel?

Sanabel: I will commit martyrdom.