Suicide bombing is about sex
Friday, July 13, 2007 at 11:09AM ARTICLE: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature, By:Alan S. Miller Ph.D., Satoshi Kanazawa Ph.D., Psychology Today
Excerpt:
4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim
Suicide missions are not always religiously motivated, but according to Oxford University sociologist Diego Gambetta, editor of Making Sense of Suicide Missions, when religion is involved, the attackers are always Muslim. Why? The surprising answer is that Muslim suicide bombing has nothing to do with Islam or the Quran (except for two lines). It has a lot to do with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.
What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.
So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region.
However, polygyny itself is not a sufficient cause of suicide bombing. Societies in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean are much more polygynous than the Muslim nations in the Middle East and North Africa. And they do have very high levels of violence. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from a long history of continuous civil wars—but not suicide bombings.
The other key ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in Islam. The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser.
It is the combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.
I have said it many times to many audiences. In the end, a lot of this comes down to sex, gender relations, and young men with no good prospects--not education, not poverty, not income.
Where income matters, as Collier points out (as does Benjamin Freidman) is stagnation--no matter the level.
So it all comes down to a sense of progress and potential, and that's why I argue most for individual-level connectivity.
Thanks to Jarrod Myrick for sending this.
Reader Comments (10)
Bunk. It's more of the Huntington "Clash of Civilizations" simple mental model that prevents understanding real causes and real solutions.
'The group is believed to have been the first to use the so-called "suicide vest," in which explosives are packed inside a vest worn by the attacker and detonated when at the target. A female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber, for instance, used that method to kill Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.'http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/2003/09-24-4.htm
Psychology Today is pseudo-scientific un-referenced Bunk.
Pakistan is an Islamic republic.With Sharia law implemented.The Quran allows polygamy.The culture does'nt.I know not a single soul of the zillions of people i have met in Pak.who is practicing polygamy.Its culturally unacceptable over there and not even practiced in the remote villages.Culture trumps religion.Pakistan probably has a battalion or twos worth of kids who'd raise their hands for suicide bombing.The Quran strictly does'nt allow suicide....very clearly.Conclusion= Being an expert on the Quran will get you a free meal in the East but it will never help you understand this world we live in.
To me, that's like saying, "It's not jumping out of a plane or the fall or the failed parachute or the velocity that killed you, it's the ground." Very true, but not as helpful as people imagine.
Assuming there is no universal answer, why are there female suicide murder-bombers? It cant be for the 72 virgins unless we have another gender problem brewing?
Seriously, I think a better way of looking at suicide bombers is: People who feel they have nothing to loose. History is filled with people who committed suicidal acts in desperate bids for victory or glory. Assassins, generals (and their men), athletes, kamikaze pilots (and their German equivalents). As technology advances, new ways of dying (and killing) present themselves. As for why the bombers in the ME feel this way. . .
Nathan pointed out threats to one's self. The IRA also used threats to one's family.Last I heard, unemployment is very high among both Palestinians and Saudis. In the former case, it would make it very easy to feel like one is a burden to one's family. In the latter, it would just make one feel useless.The Palestinians also have leaders who actively encourage suicide bombers as a means to their political goals, as do the Saudis (if you count OBL as one of their leaders).The article pointed out polygyny, which adds to the problems of young Saudi men. It also mentioned age, which seals the deal. Think about your experiences with adolescence, folks; if we lived in environments like the above, how many of us, our families and friends would still be alive?
None of the above factors is a necessity, but the more you have, the more likely you are to get suicide bombers.