How educated get pulled in terrorism?

I was reading about the psychological profiling of suicide bombers. Ariel Merari and Marc Sageman are some of the researchers in this field. I was shocked to find that some of my beliefs were blown to pieces.

For instance, suicide bombers do not belong to any religious sects even though violence is carried out in the name of religion. They are not the ignorant and uneducated ones. They are not the psychotics who want to harm others for the sake of harming. They are not even the 'humiliated' ones who want to get revenge for their 'anger'. They are not brainwashed simple people who merely follow orders. They are not unmarried vagabonds; infact three fourths are married individuals with kids.

So who are they? Although, they do not have a clear psychological profile, they share one very common characteristics with all of us: our need of approval and meaning in our lives. We all have a drive to be part of something larger than ourselves, to see ourself as special, and to be part of a group whose well-being is more important to us than our own life. This need is typically met by 'small-group dynamics' , the term used by psychologists to explain this phenomenon.

In it's positive form, it is therefore seen in corporate world, where small groups achieve something extraordinary achievements ( I remember the book written by Tracy Kidder on the discovery of first mini computer). It is seen in wars when small group of soldiers launch almost impossible missions that no normal man can ever think of. Japan's suicidal missions in second world war is attributed to this phenomenon. But such small groups are also observed close in our society. Some of them direct people towards self service where young girls are married to God, some of them are driven to God's service by giving up everything, some of them drive towards a very narrow cause such as sport clubs!

But in its negative form, this small group dynamics can evolve unknowingly or get created by a zealot. When Spanish authorities put some of the 2004 conspirators on trial, they were found to be from neighborhood in Northern Morocco. Jim Jones example of Jonestown in California in 1970's is the example of a person who created such a community which resulted into a mass suicide.

Their favorite hangout is not mosque or church, but a cafe. They live in their parallel universe. They may watch Al Jazeera to find support of their beliefs. They marry one another sisters. Entry in this community may be easy, but remaining in the community is very very difficult.

The central feature of this small group is that they seal off the outside world. We normal individuals are always pulled by different opinions and directions of the world which prevent us from seeing things in unidimensional terms. These small groups, in contrast, are deprived from the signals of the outside world, either by design or accident. For them, their small world becomes their entire world. No opinion from outside world is tolerated !

Do terrorists come and find them? No, it is infact the other way around. They go and find terrorists to recruit themselves for a bigger cause !

I feel we need to make sense of such counter-intuitive observations because, if we do not do this consciously, our brain does this for us unconsciously. These unconscious conclusions unwittingly form our 'beliefs', which over a period of time help us take actions or prevents us in taking right actions ! If we do not engage actively in this sense-making, we also forego the opportunity to 'shape' our lives.

How & when to fight terrorism?

Now in India, we see terrorism so close to us. When the bomb blasts started in 1990s, it was a shock. After the initial shock has receded, we do not worry about the blasts as much because they happen in trains, buses, shops and cars. And we as citizens do not know what we can do to fight terrorism.

On the one hand, Government focus is on corrective measure: increase police security measures, install CCTV cameras, equip police force with bomb-detection devices, train commandos. Building awareness of citizens to spot a suspicious activity is where we can perhaps play a small role. But all these measures are corrective. They do not help us prevent terrorism because the source of terrorism is elsewhere.

Sociologists and Social researchers all agree that the root cause of terrorism is in lack of education & lack of employable opportunities for the youth. Fundamentalists merely use this 'root cause' by channelising pent-up frustration of youth towards a target through proven tested tools of religion and philosophy. Hitler used the supremacy of his sect to bring together largest population of army, while today's Taliban uses religion. In 1940s, the only known form of terrorism was launching war against the entire country, while in 200O the war is fought within the country in pockets. Although terrorism form has changed, its essence has remained the same.

Until we human beings therefore muster the patience to address the root cause, we shall have no respite from terrorism. We need to fight terrorism by using preventive measures, by nipping the bud of terrorism. Corrective measures, although necessary, are never enough. Most of us believe that preventive measures are costly.

Now look at the arithmetic of spending on preventive measures versus corrective measures. In the war against Taliban, some 340 missile hawks were used. While a missile costs 840,000 US $, a student's supplies for entire year in Afghanistan costs 20 US$ and teacher's salary is 600 US $ per year. ( And this is just part of war cost!) Greg Mortenson estimates that at a cost of one missile, about 20000 students in Pakistan would have been educated. With that must lesser availability of potential recruits, we perhaps could be spending far less today on fighting the war against terrorism in our countries. In other words, preventive measures are not costly.

However, as you would have noticed, preventive measures take time to bear fruit. One cannot educate a Pakistani youth in a day or month. It takes time. So one has to find the balance between spending time and effort on preventive and corrective measures. If Governments are spending on short-term corrective measures, we as citizens can spend on corrective long-term measures.

Luckily we have an option today. We can help an intrepid climber, Greg Mortenson, who since 1993 has build more than 50 schools in one of the toughest territory of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His site www.ikat.org shows the regions where his schools are running. If you want to read about his courageous journey, please read Three cups of tea. More surprisingly, he has focused on girl's education, which is even better in terms of addressing the basic cause.

We therefore are lucky that we can fight terrorism today by addressing the fundamental cause of terrorism, while Government plays it short-term corrective role. Based on our earnings, we can contribute as little or as much money to Greg Mortenson's institute for building these schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.