Og du er vel klar over at om du hadde fortalt IS at det de gjør ikke er en direkte utlevelse av deres religiøse overbevisning, så hadde de skåret hodet av deg? Likevel vet du bedre enn dem hva som motiverer deres handlinger?

"There was never really discussion about texts or -- it was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion."

Hva var årsaken da? Nesten all islamsk terror, undertrykking og mishandling rettes mot andre muslimer, og tar form av en direkte bokstavtro tolkning av deres egne religiøse tekster.

The most salient patterns in the data on global terrorism that we presented suggest
that, at the country level, the sources of international terrorism have more to do with
repression [...] Thus terrorist perpetrators are not necessarily poor. But those who are repressed
politically tend to terrorize the rich, giving international terrorist events the feel of
economic warfare.

In terms of the supply of
terrorists, we hypothesize that terrorism resembles a violent form of political
engagement. More educated people from privileged backgrounds are more likely
to participate in politics, probably in part because political involvement requires
some minimum level of interest, expertise, commitment to issues and effort, all of
which are more likely if people have enough education and income to concern
themselves with more than minimum economic subsistence. Our ?nding that
terroristsare more likelyto spring from countries that lack civil rights, if it holds up,
is further support for the view that terrorism is a political, not economic, phenom-
enon. On the demand side, terroristorganizations may prefer educated, committed
individuals. In addition, well-educated,middle- or upper-class individuals are better
suited to carry out acts of international terrorism than are impoverished illiterates
because the terrorists must ?t into a foreign environment to be successful.