Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists (74 page)

Trashorras, Emilio, 170, 191–93, 192, 198, 200, 204, 209

tribe, 8–9.
See also
brotherhoods

cooperation and, 293, 303

globalization and tribal world, 40–42

“homeland” security concept and, 9

killing and dying for, 33

religion and, 32

social identity and, 41

tribal appeals as “reducing transaction costs,” 10

tribal humans and religion, 38

United States as tribalized, 9

universal religion and, 69–70

wars and, 9–10

Trust
(Fukuyama), 462

Tuburova, Mariam, 327

Turabi, Hassan al-, 99

Turkey

Hamas in, 368, 489

moderate method of coexistence, 372

nationalism in, 86

secularists in, 86, 250

World Federation of Scientists meeting, Damascus (2009), 396

“Young Turks” in, 86

Turner, Nat, 470

Turner Diaries, The
(Pierce), 474

Ubeid, 152, 153, 164

Umar Patek,
134

Unequal Democracy
(Bartels), 461

United States

abortion and capital punishment issues, 383

Afghanistan war, 243, 253–54, 257–60, 261, 263–65

American Dream, 279, 458, 459

anarchists as terrorists in, 92–98

assassination of McKinley, 94, 97

Bin Laden’s
fatwa
against, 103

Christmas Day attempted airline bombing, 114

civil rights movement, 470–71

as Commonwealth of Christian Virtue, 470

conservatives in, 458–59, 461–62

Constitution, 466

counterterrorism efforts, 284–87

culture, 34, 492n 9

distrust of other cultures, 469

as “far enemy,” 90, 102–3

foreign policy, “rational-actor” models, 393

Haidt and Joseph’s Internet Study of Five Foundations of Morality, 458–59

human rights and, 424, 425, 460

Iran foreign policy, 381

Iraq policy, 87–88

Iraq War, 272, 319, 465, 495n 13, 495n 15

jihadi schemes thwarted, 269

liberals in, 458–59, 464

localization vs. centralization in politics, 462, 463

Muslim population, 58, 279, 413

Muslim prisoners, 279, 413

Muslims, violent, 58

as “new Mongols,” 90

Philippines and, 95–96

Protestant Ethic, 469

religion in, 415, 429, 461–69

slavery and abolitionism, 470

small group dynamics and culture, 33

Soviet-Afghan War and, 99

Spanish-American War, 95

terrorism, overreaction to and grievous harm, 267, 277–78

terrorism policy, 132, 233

Times Square attempted bombing, 114

“zero tolerance” policy for jihadi activity, 282, 413

Urban, Pope, 72

Urwah, 152, 164, 165

U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 237, 480

USS
Cole
bombing, 103, 160, 257

U.S. Secret Service, 96

van Leeuwenhoek, Antony, 75

Van Vugt, Mark, 325

Vietnam War, 338, 414

Voltaire, 424

von Salomon, Ernst, 320

Wahab, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Al-, 84

Wahhabism, 84, 88–89, 99–100

Wallace, Alfred Russel, 300

Wan Mat, Wan Win bin,
134,
145, 146, 501n 13

war, 318–47.
See also specific wars

antiwar movements, 331

brotherhoods, 13, 335

the Cause and, 335–40

as cause of death, 328–29

Clausewitz delusion, 332–33, 340–41

cooperation to compete and, 456

deception and, 316

dehumanizing of enemy, 321, 322

deterrence of, 330

ethics and, 367

evolutionary drive and, 320

fighting for a cause, 333–34, 335–40

fighting for comrades, 333–35, 345–46

Good Prince Harry sentiment, 316–17

group defined by, 323

homicide statistics in peacetime and, 325

lack of reason or rational calculation, 340–44, 347

living with no end to war, 330–31

manhood, male sexuality and, 324–25

mass killing encouraged, 322

as matter of principle/moral duty, 340–44

“moral absolutist” sentiment, 377

as moral act, 322–24

as noble and exciting, 318–24, 329

nuclear threat, 28–29, 330

predictions of future casualties, 329

religious vs. secular, 414

rising risk from asymmetric conflicts and very big wars, 328–30

sacred values and, 344–47

team fighting spirit, 317, 333–34

why soldiers fight, 317, 333–37

women vs. men as killers, 324–28

War on Terror, 39, 93, 94–95, 235, 485

where we’re losing, 260

where we’re winning, 260–61

Washington, George, 92–93, 347

Washington, Levar Haney, 280–81, 282

Wealth of Nations
(Smith), 59, 322–23

Weber, Max, 469

Webster, Justin, 503n 3

Weinberg, Steven, 416

Why We Fight
(Capra), 339

Wilson, Charlie, 253

Wilson, Margo, 327

women

in Afghanistan, 250, 255–56, 260

Butterfly Laskar, Sulawesi, 19

discrimination of Muslim, 52

group cooperation and, 325

jihad and, 328

motivations for killing, 327–28

Pastun culture and, 255–56, 260

rights of, 371

studies on moral imperative for terrorism, 341–44

subordination of, 425

as warriors or suicide bombers, 324–29

World Federation of Scientists, 519n 7

meeting, Damascus (2009), 396

Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism, 484–87

World War I, 96, 322, 329, 333

World War II

apologies, 389–90, 391

Battle of Britain, 339–40

deaths in, 329

“Death Volunteers,” 336

Free French, 331

Freikorps, 319–20

Japanese emperor and, 392

Landser
(infantryman), 335

Nazi dehumanizing of enemy, 321

Nazi SS units, 334–35

soldiers’ motivations for fighting, 333–36, 339–40

Wright, Lawrence, 130

Yarkas, Imad Eddin Barakat (Abu Dahdah), 174, 175,
175,
178–83

Yassin, Ahmad, 25, 365, 386

Yazid Sufaat,
134

Yemen, 98, 140

York, Sgt. Alvin, 322

Yudhoyono, President, 153, 165

Yusef, Ahmed, 386, 519n 7

Yusef, Hassan, 385

Zahir, Shah, 244, 250, 252

Zaini, 159

Zamzulri, 159

Zangwill, Israel, 520n 21

Zarqawi, Abu Musab al-, 50, 115, 152, 273

Web site, 195, 196

Zawahiri, Ayman, 99, 100–101, 102, 135, 181, 499n 9

ideology, 130

“Jihad Against Crusaders and Jews,” 104

Zazi, Najibullah, 269

Zghayer, Shadi, 405, 406,
408

Zimbardo, Philip, 221

Zindane, Zinedine, 51–52, 487

Zoroastrians, 69

Zougam, Jamal, 176, 179–80, 181, 196, 198–99, 200

Zouheir, Rafa, 191–93,
192

Zulkarnaen, 125, 141, 143, 145, 146, 148, 155, 156, 157, 158–59, 161, 162, 501n 12

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to Isaac Ben Israel, Noam Chomsky, Baruch Fischhoff, Joseph Henrich, Lawrence Hirschfeld, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Douglas Medin, Ariel Merari, Richard Nisbett, Ara Norenzayan, Dan Sperber, and Blanka Zizka. All will no doubt recognize the strong influence that our collaborations and communications have had on what I’ve written. Joining Lord John Alderdice, Robert Axelrod, Richard Davis, Jeremy Ginges, Marc Sageman, and Khalil Shikaki on science projects in the field aimed at lessening threats to international peace was a particular privilege.

France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Institut Jean Nicod at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris have given me the professional freedom to work as long and hard on any problem that I needed to. Charles Strozier and Jeremy Travis at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice gave a home to my research projects when other universities shied away from anything to do with actually talking to terrorists. The U.S. National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Naval Research, and Army Research Office supported much of the scientific research that underpins the stories I tell.

My thanks also go to Andrea Fatica, Laura Reynolds, Dominick Wright, and Justin Magouirk, who coordinated the efforts of my research teams and responded with patience and diligence to often fitful demands. John Brockman prodded me into writing this work; Bob Axelrod and Lisa Chase endeavored mightily to edit out the error and confusion; and Lisa Chase and Dan Halpern at Ecco/HarperCollins helped me to realize that less can be more. Ximena Lois, our son Emiliano, my daughters Tatiana and Laura, and my brother, Harris, and our parents have worried about me as they shouldn’t have had to. My hope is that ways will be found in the spirit of this work to ultimately lessen the worries of all people I care for.

ALSO BY SCOTT ATRAN

Cognitive Foundations of Natural History

In Gods We Trust

Plants of the Petén Itza’ Maya
(with Ximena Lois and Edilberto Ucan Ek’)

The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature
(with Douglas Medin)

PREFACE

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

—ABRAHAM LINCOLN

T
his work is about what almost everybody believes in but only some are willing to die for. It’s about believing in something worthwhile that transcends the interests of individuals and their immediate families. It’s about the nature of faith, the origins of society, and the limits of reason. It tries to answer the question, “Why do people believe in a cause, and why do some die and kill for it?”