The Dark Root of Terrorism

by John Thompson

September 15, 2002

Some of us still don’t get it. A full year after the September 11^th attacks, it is evident that many Canadians do not yet comprehend the motivations for terrorism.

Our own Prime Minster, who has been much (and deservedly) criticized for comments he made to the CBC about the causes of the World Trade Centre attacks, is not alone in mistaking alleged Western high-handedness and our collective wealth for the prime motivators behind al Qaeda and other groups.

So, (sigh), once again; let’s go through what really inspires terrorism.

Firstly, there is no cause that ever justifies using terrorism against a democratic nation. If your grievance is real and just, peaceful protest and moral persuasion is enough (perhaps with a little non-violent civil disobedience) — just ask Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi. These tactics can even work in undemocratic Western nations, as Lech Walensa and Nelson Mandella --who eschewed the violent ways of his younger days -- have also demonstrated. If the Palestinians had a leader of the caliber of these real heroes, they’d have had their own state years ago. Instead, they turned to the sham heroics of terrorism.

When terrorists talk about principles and justice, they are lying. But then, deception is essential to the practice anyway. Fundamentally, terrorism is about heroic myth with the terrorist casting himself in the starring role. Moreover, the real motivation for terrorism is always internal and not external.

Back in the 1950’s, the American sociologist Abraham H. Maslow produced his legendary "hierarchy of needs" theory. He pointed out that people will first act to meet their needs for immediate survival — air, food, water, and protection from immediate threats. The second tier of needs comprise those associated with shelter and a safe environment. The third tier involves companionship, love and sexual gratification. There are, naturally enough, criminal behaviors associated with these needs, theft and rape for example. Terrorism has never, ever, been motivated by these needs.

The fourth tier in the hierarchy reflects the desire for peer esteem and respect; and a lot of terrorists have been recruited through these needs. The flawed and inadequate, often without real gifts of their own, can gravitate towards violent ideologies that allow themselves to feel special and wanted. Instead of being pathetic little losers with no future, they can become "warriors" who represent some great cause, and thus men (and sometimes women) to be feared and admired.

The terrorist leaders who lie to these pathetic recruits are themselves responding to the Maslow’s fifth tier of self-actualization. This involves self-expression, issues of identity and self-respect. Instead of acting according to how you would like others to see you, you act according to how you see yourself. Here is where the aspect of heroic fantasy kicks in. Osama bin Laden, for example, rejected the life of a supremely wealthy engineer and builder, turning instead to answer his own internal need to be a champion of Islam, avenger of wrongs, and restorer of the faith.

One illustration of the primacy of internal need over external ideology comes from Weimar Germany, where the Nazis and Communists (who had many common attitudes) fought to attract the same sort of low-brows for their movements. In Toronto, in the early 1990s, the Leftist hooligans of Anti-Racist Action and the White Supremacist goons of the Heritage Front were busy trying to recruit the same disaffected street-kids. With terrorism, the ideology is often afterthought, the motivation to engage in violence comes first.

The second secret about terrorists and their ilk is that they construct their own versions of history to justify their violence. The great Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis recently pointed out that the Islamic Fundamentalists use a very distorted view of history; but one which is widely held in the Muslim World. When trying to reconcile the abysmal social and economic performances of their societies, it is so much easier to construct an elaborate theory to blame someone else, rather than look at your own cultural weaknesses… And as so many Muslim liberals and intellectuals have been trying to point out, the Muslim world is largely responsible for its own problems.

Osama bin Laden and his cronies, or terrorists anywhere else in the world, have nothing positive to offer rather than vague "all will be well once we have won" statements — but they do plan violence with considerable genius. That should tell anybody all they really need to know about any terrorist, regardless of how much they prate about the justice of their cause.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca