Terrorism Triangle in Boston
Causes of terrorism: "It's religion!" "It's mental illness!" "It's political grievances!" Or, "It's America!" In the words of Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic, commenting on the two Chechens suspected of carrying out the terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon: "They grew up in the U.S., their attitudes and beliefs were formed there. It is necessary to seek the roots of evil in America."
Having served two years as an interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, worked counter-terrorism issues as a staff member in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and now as a professor who teaches future military leaders about religion and violence, I have spent years encountering how the causes of terrorism are complex and interrelated. But since 9/11, the media have been especially replete with over-simplified explanations of the causes behind terrorist violence, continually trying to peg these attacks on one particular cause or another, as if individual causes were mutually exclusive.
As we begin to learn more about the Chechens identified as suspects in the Boston terrorist attack, I suggest a tool for considering the complex causality probably at work here.
Complex causality is what we need to grasp if we are to understand how the interaction of multiple factors can escalate individual and group actions to the point of international terrorism.
This tool applies also to understanding how radical ideologies with religious elements can influence one religious believer to commit violence, while leaving unaffected other believers of the same religion. When some religious believers are not violent, people are quick to absolve that religion of any connection whatsoever to violence. Yet throughout history, across continents and cultures, from one religion to the next, religiously based narratives escalating causes to a sacred, cosmic level have been a motivating influence for violent actors (as well as for peacemakers).
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