[Milton-L] [Fwd: Re: [lbo-talk] Query re study of suicide bombing]

[Carrol Cox]

See end of post for another fwd which criticizes the study.)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Query re study of suicide bombing
Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 17:34:55 +0100
From: HMFJ <hardwin1 at googlemail.com>
Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
References: <4A07005C.6C8B8B74 at ilstu.edu>

Hi, is this the one?

Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (2005; ISBN
1-4000-6317-5) is Robert Pape's analysis of suicide terrorism from a
strategic, social, and psychological point of view. It is based on a
database he has compiled at the University of Chicago, where he directs
the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism. The book's conclusions are
based on data from 315 suicide terrorism campaigns around the world from
1980 through 2003 and 462 individual suicide terrorists. Published in
May 2005, Pape's volume has been widely noticed by the press, the
public, and policymakers alike, and has earned praise from the likes of
Peter Bergen, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), Michael Scheuer, and Noam
Chomsky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_to_Win

On 5/10/09, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
> A couple years ago a university of Chicago professor published a study
> of suicide bombers, emphasizing their motives were nationalistic rather
> than religious. Can anyone give me the citations for this. Name of
> author, title of book, title of any articles, web sites, etc
>
> Carrol
>

Here is the second response to my query. I have great respect for Chip
Berlet, who with his colleagues has made a continuing study in depth of
rightist religious currents both in the U.S. and elsewhere, both
Christian and other religions. You can find many of those studies by
googling "Chip Berlet," which will give you the web page of his group.
You can decide for yourself which analysis to accept. I won't post
further on this, since it would carry us further and further away from
Milton, but I do want to insist that when writers speak of "suicide
bombers" they should recognize that the subject is a complex one. The
phrase is firmly embedded in contemporary politics, and to use it raises
contemporary political issuesd. (Just as it is impossible to discuss
Milton's concept of freedom in PL without overlapping 21st-c theological
disputes.)

Carrol

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Query re study of suicide bombing
Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 13:00:35 -0400
From: Chip Berlet <c.berlet at publiceye.org>
Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
References:
<4A07005C.6C8B8B74 at ilstu.edu><d15777030905100934q67bc6887u13c93de72e22b194 at mail.gmail.com>

 
Highly flawed analysis because the concepts of apocalyptic belief and
religious nationalism were simply dismissed.
 
See:
 
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/terrorism/insurgency/biblio.html#relvio
 
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/terrorism/insurgency/biblio.html#islam
 
especially:
 

Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2000. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of
Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California.

Kaplan, Jeffrey. 1997. Radical Religion in America: Millenarian
Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah. Syracuse, N.Y.:
Syracuse University Press.

Robbins, Thomas and Susan J. Palmer, eds. 1997. Millennium, Messiahs,
and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements. New York: Routledge.

Stern, Jessica. 2003. Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants
Kill. New York: Ecco/Harper Collins. 

-Chip

--------
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org on behalf of
HMFJ
[CLIP]
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