Sacred Terror: How Faith Becomes Lethal (Praeger Security International)

296 Pages·2012·1.064 MB·English

by  Daniel E. Price

Sacred Terror
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Sacred Terror
How Faith Becomes Lethal
DANIEL E. PRICE
Copyright 2012 by Daniel E. Price
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without
prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Price, Daniel E., 1962–
Sacred terror : how faith becomes lethal / Daniel E. Price.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-313-38638-1 (hardcopy : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-38639-8 (ebook)
1. Terrorism—Religious aspects. I. Title.
BL65.T47P75 2012
201'.763325—dc23 2012011931
ISBN: 978-0-313-38638-1
EISBN: 978-0-313-38639-8
16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
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To my loving wife, partner, and inspiration: Bonnie Diamond
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
1. How Religion Facilitates Terrorism 1
2. A More Complex Relationship between Religion and Terrorism 25
3. Political Causes of Religion-Based Terrorism 49
4. Socioeconomic Causes of Religion-Based Terrorism 75
5. Psychological Causes of Religion-Based Terrorism 101
6. Judaism: Religion-Based Terrorism in Israel 129
7. Christianity: The Troubles in Northern Ireland and
Antiabortion Terrorism in the United States 153
8. Islam: Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda 183
Conclusion: What’s Next ? 215
Notes 229
Index 259
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Preface
I have maintained a scholarly interest in religion for more than 25 years.
I was first intrigued and frightened by religious Jewish settlers in the West
Bank when I spent a year in Israel in 1984–1985 after I graduated college.
Being Jewish, I wondered how individuals who shared my religious heri-
tage could view the world in a way that was diametrically opposed to how
I did. Consequently, I decided that I wanted to study the politics of Jew-
ish extremism when I entered graduate school at the University of Texas in
1988. My MA thesis supervisor, Dr. Clement Henry, wisely suggested that
I compare Israel’s Jewish extremists with Egypt’s Islamic extremists, which
stimulated my interest in Islam. While writing my thesis, I discovered that
there were profound theological similarities between Islam and Judaism and
that Jewish and Islamic extremists had similar worldviews. However, I con-
cluded that it was Israel and Egypt’s very divergent political systems that
had the greatest influence on shaping religious extremism in their respective
countries.
My doctoral dissertation at Binghamton University examined the empiri-
cal relationship between Islam and democracy using comparative case stud-
ies and quantitative analysis. There, I concluded that, contrary to common
perception, the lack of democracy in the Islamic world was not due to the
Islamic religion but rather socioeconomic factors and the historical experi-
ences of Islamic countries. Further research examining the relationship be-
tween Islam and human rights and civil liberties produced the same findings.
Consequently, I concluded that Islam was not a regressive political force, as
was commonly believed to be the case. The campaigns for democracy in the