Inside the minds of Islam's suicide bombers

Scotland on Sunday/October 12, 2003
By Ben McConville

Hanadi -- Tayssir Jaradat calmly walked into the Maxim restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa with explosives strapped to her waist and pressed the detonator.

The 29-year-old trainee lawyer killed 19 people, including five children, as they enjoyed a late lunch on the eve of the Yom Kippur Jewish holiday last weekend.

But what drove an educated woman with a good career to take her own life and that of so many others?

Using interviews with the relatives and friends of suicide bombers Dr Rona Fields, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, has studied the family backgrounds and the state of mind of the attackers.

In her forthcoming book Martyrdom, Fields writes that the terrorists are normally from privileged backgrounds and are well educated. This makes them confident in their own beliefs. The trigger for their behaviour is usually that they have seen the death of a sibling, often their eldest brother, for the cause. In Jaradat's case, her brother and cousin were killed by Israeli soldiers in June.

Fields said: "They feel a need to assume the dead family member's commitment and prove themselves with a deed. The processes in the brain that choose martyrdom are in the same part of the brain that choose altruism.

"What is interesting about the suicide bombers is their sense of calmness and love seems incongruous with the destruction and killing they are about to cause."

By posthumously building up the psychological profile of the suicide bombers, Fields discovered many have truncated development, often at the age of 14 or 15.

"There is no quid pro quo that says just because a child grows up in violence that violence is the only outcome," she said. "It's a choice, but the mind of a 15-year-old doesn't yet have the full range of choices. In many cases of suicide bombers the vendetta can be caused by the death of an older sibling, most often the eldest brother."

Meanwhile, Dr Ruth Stein, a leading psychoanalyst from New York, has studied the letters left by Mohammad Atta, believed to be one of the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks. Atta had an overbearing father who was a religious fundamentalist, though when he was told of his son's actions he greeted them with utter disbelief.

Stein said: "From the tone of one letter he is in an altered state of mind, possibly as a result of brainwashing. He's in a different state of consciousness and he would be immune to the terror and rage he would cause."

Atta's rambling letter, sent to fellow 9/11 terrorists, says: "You should be cheerful for the time between you and your marriage is only a few moments with which you begin the happy, satisfactory life and the eternal bliss with the Prophets and the true believers and the martyrs and the good people and what a great company to be among."