Why Religious Militants Kill

So I haven't written in a few days, maybe weeks. I've been busy, OK? I picked up a new book the other day titled "Why Religious Militants Kill, Terror in the Name of God." It looks like an interesting read and I plan to get started soon.

Before I do that, however, I want to ponder the title on my own and see if I can develop any of my own theories (you know, judge the book by its cover). The first question that comes to my mind is, why do people kill at all? I think the basic answer to that is that the killer perceives some sort of injustice. The key word there is perceives.

If someone wants to kill someone or does kill someone, I think you can always trace it back to a perceived injustice. Even serial killers and psychos, it seems, all kill because they think they or someone else has been wronged in some way and that by killing another person, that brings balance to justice. It's the old eye-for-an-eye adage in action.

So what about religious militants or people who kill for seemingly religious reasons? I think the same is true. Let's look at Islamic militants since they seem to be in the news more often than other religious warriors. Typically, these militants use as their motivation that Islam is the only true religion, all others are subservient, and those who threaten Islam should be killed. In other words, those who cause an imbalance in justice, making it seem like their religion is being threatened or being treated unjustly.

Your average future suicide bomber probably wakes up one day and sees all the poverty and unfairness in his life while well-off westerners traipse around the globe sucking up valuable resources and waging war. He perceives this as unfair. Hey, why can't he wear designer jeans and Oakley sunglasses? That's not fair. And the reason he's being kept down is that his religion is under attack. Because that's all he has left is religion. So that's all he knows.

But why does he cross the line and the millions of others in the same situation struggle on through other means? It's all a matter of perception. He sees this problem and believes that the only way to get out is to pull the trigger, push the button, whatever. He's probably had people telling him all his life about the injustice and how much more fair things would be if only Islam led the way. So it starts looking like Islam is the only way.

And I guess it all goes downhill from there. That seems like a tough problem to solve. How do you change that guy's perceptions? How can you make him think that he doesn't have it all that bad or that there are alternatives to violence? He's already at the end of the rope, it's already too late.

Something to think about.