Dr Robert Pape is an American political scientist known for his work on international security affairs, especially the rationale of suicide terrorism. Based on his analysis of every known case of suicide terrorism between 1980 and 2003 (315 attacks as part of 18 campaigns), he concludes that there is "little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions... Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland" (p. 4) The central problem is political and economical, not religious. Anyone who claims otherwise is ignorant of the facts, and loaded with prejudice and bias. Read for yourself: apsanet.org/imgtest/apsraug03pape.pdf
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 09:10:50 +0000