Posted on 06/21/2005 3:33:42 AM PDT by Thebaddog
Islam is not to blame for suicide bombings, a U-M study shows.
Personal devotion to Islam is unrelated to support for suicide bombing among Palestinian Muslims, according to the study presented May 27 at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society in Los Angeles. But the more often Muslims attended mosques, the more likely they were to support suicide terrorism.
The frequency of suicide terrorism is growing exponentially, motivated by a fusion of religious and political goals, says Jeremy Ginges, a researcher at the Institute for Social Research (ISR).
At least 70 percent of more than 300 suicide attacks that occurred between 2000 and 2003 were carried out by religiously motivated organizations, recent research by Ginges colleague Scott Atran has shown.
But despite the appearance of a link between religiosity and support for suicide terrorism, the nature of this connection has been unclear. My analysis shows that Islamic beliefs and devotion are not, in themselves, linked to support for such terrorism, Ginges says.
The study analyzed how personal religious devotion, measured by frequency of prayer, and communal religious practice, measured by frequency of mosque attendance, predicted support for suicide bombings.
The study is based on a survey of 1, 151 Muslim Palestinians adults residing in the West Bank and Gaza, conducted in May 1999 by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian survey organization. About half of those surveyed were female, and the mean age was 34. Approximately one-third of the people surveyed were refugees, and about 29 percent had attended at least some college.
About 9 percent said they never prayed, 7 percent prayed very little, 6 percent prayed on Fridays and religious holidays, 8 percent prayed more often, and 69 percent prayed five times a day.
Approximately 24 percent said they attended a Mosque only on religious holidays, 36 percent on Fridays and religious holidays, 22 percent at least once a week and 18 percent once a day.
Roughly 16 percent said they strongly supported suicide bombing, while 45 percent strongly opposed it.
Private religious devotion to Islam, measured by frequency of prayer, was unrelated to the odds of a Palestinian Muslim supporting the use of suicide bombing, Ginges says.
In contrast, communal religious devotion, measured by the frequency of Mosque attendance, was a good predictor of support for suicide terrorism, even after controlling for a wide variety of factors, including frequency of prayer, age, economic situation, gender, refugee status, and attitudes about the peace process and the formation of a Palestinian state based on Muslim law, the Sharia.
But Ginges cautioned that mosque attendance in itself does not lead to support for suicide terrorism. Participating in communal religious rituals of any kind likely encourages support for self-sacrificing behaviors that are done for the collective good, Ginges says. Suicide attacks can be seen as a bizarre example of self-sacrificial behaviorwhere often the best and brightest youth are sacrificed to the cause and to the community, he says.
Religion is not the only factor encouraging Palestinian rebellion against Israeli occupation or support for suicide terrorism.
The way particular communities are situated within an ethno-political conflict and the leadership of specific congregations are important factors predicting support for suicide bombings beyond how often an individual attends a mosque, Ginges says. Leaders of certain political groups use mosques to recruit supporters, but most people who attend mosques do not support suicide terrorism.
Ginges is conducting studies in the U.S. and in Israel to examine how church and synagogue attendance predicts support for other kinds of self-sacrificing, altruistic behaviors among adherents of Christianity and Judaism.
Islam the religion of peace my @$$ !! What a bunch of crap !!! It's in the acronym I. S. L. A. M. ( Islam's Spititual Leaders Advocate Murder ) And if they don't where have they been ? Do you hear of ANY Islamic leaders denouncing their terrorist activities ??? Where is the outrage with these so called peace loving Mullas ??? there is none because they support the violance plain and simple . We are at war with radical islam , and moderates don't seem to want to support the US position of human rights . So U-M , study that !!!
Celtic Conservative study shows attendance at U-M not linked to education.
'nuf said,
CC
That would be an interesting comparison. The ratio of gun crimes to NRA members would be very low. The ratio of suicide bombers to Moslems, however, would be almost 100 percent.
You know no one would ever undertake that study. Then they'd be asking for comparisons of crimes committed by citizens and illegals, republicans and democrats, taxpayers and those on welfare, etc. The MSM doesn't want to see those stats.
peace be unto you my Muslim brother.../sarc
No kidding. Just hope the homeland didn't wait too long before moving to 'nip it in the bud'. This would have been unheard of in the 50's and 60's. Thank you CARTER & CLINTON! Socialist scum!
This is what passes for rational thinking in Islam. ALL suicide bombers are muslims, and they do it for the same reasons, whether it's against Jews are against infidels. They do it because Islam is a cult which tells them to.
It's like the "there are many different Islam religions, just like there are many different forms of Christianity" excuse.
They all follow the same Koran, except for a surat or two, just like Christians follow the same bible.
Islam tells Muslims regardless of which sec they belong to, to kill Jews and Christians, and jihad (using every means of war and arms possible) is duty of every Muslim and is one of it's pillars, until the last day or the world is all Islam.
Ishaq:208 When Allah gave permission to his Apostle to fight, the second Aqaba contained conditions involving war which were not in the first act of submission. Now we bound themselves to war against all mankind for Allah and His Apostle. He promised us a reward in Paradise for faithful service. We pledged ourselves to war in complete obedience to Muhammad no matter how evil the circumstances.
This applies to all muslims of all secs regardless of devotion, in fact the more devote the more likely this person is going to kill somebody.
The study said 70%. I am surprised that so many Freepers miss the obvious. When it is mentioned that there are moderate Muslims all Hell breaks loose from some corners. The fact that most terrorists are Muslims is supported by this study but it also supports that most Muslims aren't terrorists and the percentage that are are also the ones who attend the Mosques the most. Why?
In the Mosques they are harangued by the Imams to go out and defeat (kill) the infidels. Why? They want an Islamic government everywhere. Why? The Imams then run the government, meaning they run everything. They then would no longer have to cajole their followers, the can make them do anything they want or face prohibitive penalties. In short, Imams want jihad to increase their own personal power. (Sounds like Democrats doesn't it?)
If all Muslims feel this way why are they not all suicide bombers? Billions of suicide bombers would overwhelm any resistance. (Of course, if they all committed suicide the problem would be solved unless they took all the rest of us with them.) To develop suicide bombers it takes the brainwashing of the madrassas and the constant encouragement of the Imams in the Mosques. The more a person is exposed to that the more likely he is to do it.
This study says that. To those who say that all Muslims are dedicated killers I say, "Bosh!". They usually reply, "Hey, look here. Its in the Book." and then they point out verses in the Koran.
Judeism, Christianity, and Islam all evolved from the same area in the ME. Many ideas overlap. This is not unusual in that much of the history of the area and time was oral. Similar metaphors were used by all. Does anyone want to hold himself to the strict interpretation of everything in the Old Testament?
The fact is that all Jews are not devote and all Christians aren't either. Why would you expect Muslims to be? Those who expose themselves to haranguing by fundamentalist Imams are the most likely to be devote. Same is true of Jews and Christians.
This seems so obvious to me I can't understand why it isn't to all.
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