A cultural-psychological theory of contemporary islamic martyrdom

Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour

Volumn 37, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 415-445

  Güss, C Dominik ^a   Tuason, Ma Teresa ^a   Teixeira, Vanessa B ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA   (United States)

Author keywords

Culture; Ideological thinking; Iraq; Islamic martyrdom; Palestine; Suicide missions; Terrorism

Indexed keywords

EID: 36448973107     PISSN: 00218308     EISSN: 14685914     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5914.2007.00347.x     Document Type: Article

References (109)

1. Abedin, M. 2005 The battle within Syria: an interview with Muslim Brotherhood leader Ali Bayanouni. Terrorism Monitor, 3 (16 8 11.
2. Abi-Hashem, N. 2004 Peace and war in the Middle East: a psychopolitical and socio-cultural perspective. In F.M. Moghaddam A.J. Marsella (Eds.), Understanding terrorism. psychological roots, consequences and interventions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 69 90.
3. Alon, G. 2002 Sharon panel: Iraq is our biggest danger Ha'artezt, August 13.
4. Al-Zarqawi, A.-M. 2006 Ibn Abu-Waqqas [To the Nation of Islam]. Political Fortress (April 6, 2006), http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/zarqawi040604.html (accessed February 20, 2006).
5. Atran, S. 2004 Mishandling suicide terrorism. The Washington Quarterly, 27 (3 67 90.
6. Atran, S. 2003 Genesis of suicide terrorism. Science, 299, 1534 1539.
7. Avnery, U. 2003 Crying Wolf? CounterPunch, March 15. Retrieved August 19, 2006 from http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery03172003.html.
8. Bandura, A. 2004 The role of selective moral disengagement in terrorism and counterterrorism. In F.M. Moghaddam A.J. Marsella (Eds.), Understanding terrorism: psychosocial roots, consequences, and interventions. Washington, D.C American Psychological Association, pp. 121 150.
9. Barkan, S.E. Snowden, L.L. 2001 Collective violence. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
10. Baumeister, R.F. 1996 Evil: inside human violence and cruelty. New York: Freeman.
11. Berko, A. Erez, E. 2005 "Ordinary People" and "Death Work": Palestinian suicide bombers as victimizers and victims. Violence and Victims, 20, 603 623.
12. Bin Laden, O. 2004 Bin Laden speaks to American people. October 30, 2004. Retrieved May15, 2006 from http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldview/story/0, 151581,845725,00.html.
13. Bin Laden, O. 2002 Letter to America. Guardian Unlimited: Observer Worldview Extra; Sunday, November 24.
14. Bin Laden, O. 2001 Bin Laden's warning. October, 7, 2001. Retrieved August 20, 2006 from http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1585636. stm.
15. Bin Laden, O. 1998 John Miller interviews Osama Bin Laden. Retrieved August 2006 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/ interview.html.
16. Bjørgo, T. 2005 Conclusions. In T. Bjørgo (Ed.), Root causes of terrorism. Myths, reality, and ways forward. New York: Routledge, pp. 256 264.
17. Bloom, M. 2005 Dying to kill. The allure of suicide terror. New York: Columbia Univeristy Press.
18. Borneman, J. 2001 Genital anxiety. Anthropological Quarterly, 75, 129 137.
19. Brannan, D.W., Esler, P.F. Anders Strindberg, N.T. 2001 Talking to "Terrorists": towards an independent analytical framework for the study of violent substate activism. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 24 (1 3 24.
20. Brisard, J.-C. Dasquié, G. 2002 Forbidden truth: U.S.-Taliban secret oil diplomacy and the failed hunt for Bin Laden. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.
21. Brym, R.J. Araj, B. 2006 Suicide bombing as strategy and interaction: the case of the second intifada. Social Forces, 84 (4 1969 1986.
22. Burke, J. 2004 Al-Qaeda: casting a shadow of terror. London: I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd.
23. Bush, G.W. 2005 President discusses war on terror and upcoming Iraqi elections. Park Hyatt, Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. December 12, 2005. Retrieved September 12, 2006 from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/ 12/20051212-4.html.
24. CenterforCounterintelligenceandSecurityStudies 2006 In their own words. David G. Major Associates. Retrieved September 20, 2006 from http://www.ctstudies.com/In_Their_Own_Words_1.html.
25. Charney, I.W. 2007 Fighting suicide bombing. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.
26. Clawson, P. 2003 How Iraqis view U.S. role is key to evaluating progress in Iraq. Policywatch, 787, September 29. Retrieved September 29, 2006 from http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=1665.
27. Cook, D. 2005 Women fighting in Jihad? Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Special Issue: Women and Terrorism, 28 (5 375 384.
28. Crenshaw, M. 1990 The causes of terrorism. In C.W. Kegley, Jr. (Ed.), International terrorism: characteristics, causes, controls. New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 113 126.
29. Danner, M. 2004 The transformation of the United States from a nation that did not torture to one that does. UC Berkley News, June 2. Retrieved May 10, 2006 from http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/02_torture1. shtml.
30. Davis, J.M. 2003 Martyrs: innocence, vengeance, and despair in the Middle East. New York: Palgrave McMillan.
31. Dietrich, J.W. (Ed.). 2005 The George W. Bush foreign policy reader. Presidential speeches and commentary. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
32. Dilthey, W. 1894 Ideen über eine beschreibende und zergliedernde Psychologie. [Ideas concerning a descriptive and analytical psychology]. In Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1309 1407.
33. Dörner, D. 1999 Bauplan für eine Seele [Blueprint for a soul]. Reinbek: Rowohlt.
34. Dörner, D. 1994 Heuristik der Theorienbildung. In T. Herrmann W.H. Tack (Eds.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Band 1: Methodologische Grundlagen der Psychologie [Encyclopedia of Psychology, Volume 1: Methodological Fundamentals of Psychology]. Göttingen: Hogrefe, pp. 343 388.
35. Dwairy, M., Achoui, M., Abouserie, R. Farah, A. 2006a Parenting adolescent-family connectedness among Arabs: a second cross-regional research study. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 37 (3 248 261.
36. Dwairy, M., Achoui, M., Abouserie, R. Farah, A. 2006b Parenting styles, individuation, and mental health of Arab adolescents: a third cross-regional research study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37 (3 262 272.
37. Falk, A. 2001 Osama bin Laden and America: A psychobiographical study. Mind and Human Interaction, 12 (3 161 172.
38. Frankl, V.E. 1968 Man's search for meaning. Boston: Beacon Press.
39. Gambetta, D. 2005 Can we make sense of suicide missions? In Diego Gambetta (Ed.), Making sense of suicide missions. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press, pp. 259 299.
40. Gergen, K.J. 1994 Realities and relationships: soundings in social construction. Cambridge, MAL Harvard University Press.
41. Ghosh, A. 2005 Ready to die. A young Iraqi explains why he plans to be a suicide bomber. Time, July 4, 2005.
42. Güss, D. 2000 Planen und Kultur? [Planning and culture?]. Lengerich, Germany: Pabst Science Publishers.
43. Haddad, S. 2004 A comparative study of Lebanese and Palestinian perceptions of suicide bombings: the role of militant Islam and socio-economic status. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 45 (5 337 363.
44. Hafez, M.M. 2006 Rationality, culture, and structure in the making of suicide bombers: a preliminary theoretical synthesis and illustrative case study. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 29 (2 165 185.
45. Hafez, M.M. 2006 Manufactoring human bombs. The making of Palestinian suicide bombers. Washington D.C United States Institute of Peace Press.
46. Harb, C., Al Hafedh, A. Fischer, R. 2006 Social-psychological predictors of support for resistance in Iraq: a national sample survey. Paper presented at the Eighteenth Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Isle of Spetses, Greece, July 11 to 15, 2006.
47. Herskovits, M.J. 1948 Man and his works: the science of cultural anthropology. New York: Knopf.
48. Hoffman, B. 2006 Inside terrorism (2nd rev. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
49. Hoffman, B. McCormick, G.H. 2004 Terrorism, signaling, and suicide attack. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 27, 243 281.
50. Hofstede, G. 2001 Culture's consequences (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
51. Holmes, S. 2005 Al-Qeda, September 11, 2001. In D. Gambetta (Ed.), Making sense of suicide missions. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press, pp. 131 172.
52. Hudson, R. 1999 The sociology and psychology of terrorism. Library of Congress-Federal Research Division (September 1999).
53. InternationalCommitteeoftheRedCross 2004 Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (IRC) on the treatment by the coalition forces of prisoners of war and other protected persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq during arrest, internment and interrogation (February, 2004).
54. IraqCoalitionCasualtiesCount 2006 Designed and maintained by Michael White. Retrieved June 18, 2006 from http://icasualties.org/oif/.
55. Jenkins, P. 2003 Images of terror. What we can and can't know about terrorism. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
56. Kanzai, R. 2006 Covering Israel/Palestine. Znet (March 23, 2006). Retrieved May 20, 2007 from http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm? itemID=9976§ionID=1.
57. Kayer, J. 2002 Israel urges U.S. to attack. Washington Post, August 16, 2002.
58. Khosrokhavar, F. 2005 Suicide bombers. Allah's new martyrs (translated by David Macey). London: Pluto Press.
59. Kimmerling, B. 2003 Politicide: Ariel Sharon's war against the Palestinians. London: Verso.
60. Krueger, A. Maleckova, J. 2003 Education, poverty, political violence and terrorism: is there a causal connection. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17 (4 119 144.
61. Kushner, H.W. 1996 Suicide bombers. Business as usual Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 19, 329 337.
62. Lester, D., Yang, B. Lindsay, M. 2004 Suicide bombers: are psychological profiles possible? Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 27, 283 295.
63. Levant, R.F., Barbanel, L. DeLeon, P.H. 2003 Psychology's response to terrorism. In F.M. Moghaddam A.J. Marsella (Eds.), Understanding terrorism: psychosocial roots, consequences, and interventions. Washington, D.C American Psychological Association, pp. 265 286.
64. Levy-Barzilai, V. 2002 On suicide bombers and humanity. Friday June 21, 2002, San Francisco Independent Media Center. Retrieved September 2, 2006 from http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2002/06/21/1339961.php
65. Levy-Barzilai, V. 2003 Interview with a suicide bomber. Retrieved August 20, 2006 from http://www.therazor.org/oldroot/Summer02/sbombinterview.htm.
66. Madsen, J. 2005 Murder and martyrdom. Suicide terror in the third millennium. TheArena Journal, 23, 97 110.
67. Maikovich, A.K. 2005 A new understanding of terrorism using cognitive dissonance principles. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 35 (4 373 397.
68. Marsella, A.J. 2005 Culture and conflict: understanding, negotiating, and reconciling conflicting constructions of reality. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29 (6 651 673.
69. Martens, W.H.J. 2004 The terrorist with antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 4 (1 45 56.
70. Martin, G. 2004 Understanding terrorism. Challenges, perspectives, and issues. Sage: Thousand Oaks.
71. Mazzetti, M. 2006 Spy agencies say Iraq war worsens terrorism threat. The New York Times, September 24.
72. McFadden, R.D. 2001 Bin Laden's journey from rich pious lad to the mask of evil. New York Times, September 30.
73. Mearsheimer, J.J. Walt, S.M. 2006 The Israel lobby and U.S. foreign policy. Working paper number: RWP06-011. Submitted: 03/13/2006. Edited and reworked version of this paper was published in the London Review of Books, 28, (6), March 23.
74. Merari, A. 1990 The readiness to kill and die. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism. New York: Cambridge Univeristy Press, pp. 192 207.
75. MilitaryStudiesintheJihadAgainsttheTyrants 2000 Retrieved November 10, 2006 from http://www.feastofhateandfear.com/archives/al_qaeda.html.
76. Moghaddam, F.M. 2006 From the terrorists' point of view: what they experience and why they come to destroy. Westport, CN: Praeger Security International.
77. Moghaddam, F.M. 2005 The staircase to terrorism: a psychological exploration. American Psychologist, 60, 161 169.
78. Moghaddam, F.M. Marsella, A.J. (Eds.). 2004 Understanding terrorism: psychological roots, consequences, and interventions. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
79. Morris, B. 1999 Righteous victims: a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-1999. New York: Alfred Knopf.
80. Murphy, J.F. Jr. 2003 Sward of Islam. Muslim extremism from the Arab conquests to the attack on America. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
81. Neria, Y, Roe, D., Beit-Hallahmi, B., Mneimneh, H., Balaban, A. Marshall, R. 2005 The Al Qaeda 9/11 instructions: a study in the construction of religious martyrdom. Religion, 35 (1 1 11.
82. Oliver, A.M. Steinberg, P.F. 2005 The road to martyrs' square. A journey into the world of the suicide bomber. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
83. Pape, R.A. 2005 Dying to win. The strategic logic of suicide terrorism. New York: Crown Publishing Group/Random House.
84. Pastor, L.H. 2004 Countering the psychological consequences of suicide terrorism. Psychiatric Annals, 34, 701 708.
85. Pedhazur, A. 2005 Suicide terrorism. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
86. Pedhazur, A. (Ed.). 2006 Root causes of suicide terrorism: the globalization of martyrdom. London, New York: Routledge.
87. Porpora, D.V. 1990 How Holocausts happen: the United States in Central America. Philadelphia: Temple University.
88. Post, J.M. 2005 When hatred is bread in the bone: psycho-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Political Psychology, 26 (4 615 636.
89. Post, J.M., Sprinzak, E. Denny, L.M. 2003 The terrorists in their own words: interviews with 35 incarcerated Middle Eastern terrorists. Terrorism and Political Violence, 15 (1 171 184.
90. ProgramonInternationalPolicyAttitudes. September 27, 2006 The Iraqi public on the US presence and the future of Iraq - A World Public Opinion.org Poll. Washington, DC: Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).
91. Rai, M. 2003 Regime unchanged. London: Pluto Press.
92. Reuter, C. 2004 My life is a weapon: a modern history of suicide bombing. Princeton University Press.
93. Reynolds, J. 2004 Nobody is going to live forever. July 16, retrieved February 20, 2006 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/ 3899015.stm.
94. Ricolfi, L. 2005 Palestine, 1981-2003. In D. Gambetta (Ed.), Making sense of suicide missions. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press, pp. 77 129.
95. Roberts, L., Riyadg, L., Richard, G., Khudhairi, J. Burnham, G. 2004 Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey. The Lancet, 364 (9448 1857 1864.
96. Rudge, D. 2002 In the mind of a would-be suicide bomber. May 30. Retrieved February 20, 2006 from http://www.jpost.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer? pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/Fullandcid=1022691055383.
97. Schweitzer, Y. Goldstein Ferber, S. 2005 Al Quaeda and the internationalization of suicide terrorism. Tel Aviv University: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Memorandum No. 78.
98. Sciolino, E. 2002 Don't weaken Arafat, Saudi warns Bush. New York Times, January 27, A6.
99. Shneidman, E.S. 2004 Autopsy of a suicidal mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
100. Silberman, I., Higgins, E.T. Dweck, C.S. 2005 Religion and world change: violence and terrorism versus peace. Journal of Social Issues, 61 (4 761 784.
101. Silke, A. 2003 The psychology of suicidal terrorism. In A. Silke (Ed.), Terrorists, victims and society: psychological perspectives on terrorism and its consequences. Chichester, UK: Wileyand Sons, pp. 93 108.
102. Smith, P.B. Bond, M.H. 1998 Social psychology across cultures (2nd ed.). London: Prentice Hall.
103. Soibelman, M. 2004 Palestinian suicide bombers. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 1, 175 190.
104. Tajfel, H. 1982 Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
105. Tanenbaum, R.S. 2006 Preaching terror: free speech or wartime incitement? American Univeristy Law Review, February 23, 2006, 785 819.
106. UnitedStates. DepartmentofState 1999 Patterns of global terrorism, 1998. Washington, D.C.
107. Victoroff, J. 2005 The mind of the terrorist: a review and critique of psychological approaches. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 49 (1 3 42.
108. Wagner, R.V. Long, K.R. 2004 Terrorism from a peace psychology perspective. In F.M. Moghaddam A.J. Marsella (Eds.), Understanding terrorism: psychosocial roots, consequences, and interventions. Washington, D.C American Psychological Association, pp. 207 220.
109. Yom, S. Saleh, B. 2004 Palestinian suicide bombers: a statistical analysis. Retrieved September 27, 2006 from http://www.ecaar.org/Newsletter/ Nov04/saleh.htm.