A Murder Is Only A Extroverted Suicide.

In January's Scientific American Michael Shermer of Skeptic, wrote an excellent article on the ongoing investigation into the psychology of the suicide bomber. It brought to the fore several issues that I have debated with my friends, first and foremost these people are not insane, at least not in the clinical sense. Here's a clinical definition of a suicidal personality:

"People desire death when two fundamental needs are frustrated to the point of extinction; namely, the need to belong with or connect to others, and the need to feel effective with or to influence others."

By this theory, the people who chose to jump from the World Trade Center rather than burning to death were not suicidal; neither were the passengers on Flight 93 who courageously fought the hijackers for control of the plane that ultimately crashed into a Pennsylvania field; and neither were the hijackers who flew the planes into the buildings"

The backgrounds of the majority of Al Qaeda recruits may surprise many:

"the vast majority--90 percent--came from caring, intact families. Sixty-three percent had gone to college, as compared with the 5-6 percent that's usual for the third world. These are the best and brightest of their societies in many ways."....

"Far from having no family or job responsibilities, 73 percent were married and the vast majority had children.... Three quarters were professionals or semiprofessionals. They are engineers, architects and civil engineers, mostly scientists. Very few humanities are represented, and quite surprisingly very few had any background in religion."

It may not surprise you that most Al Qaeda recruits came from countries ruled by repressive regimes, Saudi Arabia & Bahrain supply the most per capita, while few came form poor countries which allowed civil rights.