To help us better understand suicide bombings Professor Riaz Hassan, one of the worlds leading sociologists, has brought together a wealth of knowledge on suicide, religion and the state, terrorism, politics and social conditions.
This masterful analysis takes us through two thousand years of history, and in recent decades across a wide geographical spread from Sri Lanka to Chechnya, from Israel to Iraq, from Turkey to Pakistan and many places in between.
Hassan argues that suicide terrorism uses life as a weapon for altruistic purposes and is a global phenomenon which has seen more suicide bombings in Iraq alone since 2003, than in the whole world in the preceding 25 years. He shows this with the meticulous scholarship that has characterized his impressive scholarly work for decades.
Adam Graycar, Professor, Rutgers University, USA
This is a marvelous book by an extraordinary and courageous scholar.
Throughout Life as a Weapon Professor Hassan challenges a number of taboos and if his data lead him that way he is ready to take politically incorrect positions. After the 9/11 tragedy (and the horror of suicide attacks wherever they occur) it is next to impossible for scholars in the West to take an objective view about who suicide bombers are, what their real motivation is, and how suicide bombing compares ethically with other acts of war. The Western media and often even Western scholars describe suicide bombers as fanatics, cowardly criminals who often commit the crimes drugged by their commanders.
Professor Hassan shows that all this received wisdom is false. Suicide bombing is hardly a fanatic, irrational act; it is actually a very effective political, military response, mostly carried out against occupying forces who have an overall military superiority and can only be challenged or even defeated by suicide terrorism.
There will be readers who will be upset when confronted by this book, but as far as I am concerned this speaks for Professor Hassan. He does not excuse suicide bombing but he understands it and provokes his readers to rethink their basic and I am sure he is right: mostly false assumptions.
Ivan Szelenyi, William Graham Sumner Professor of Sociology and
Professor of Political Science, Yale University, USA
Life as a Weapon
Suicide bombing has become a weapon of choice among terrorist groups because of its lethality and ability to cause mayhem and fear. But who carries out these acts, and what motivates them? By undertaking analysis of the information in the most comprehensive suicide terrorism database in the world, Life as a Weapon seeks to question and in turn undermine the common perception that the psychopathology of suicide bombers and their religious beliefs are the principal causes.
Instead, the book presents a cocktail of motivations that drive suicide bombers, and explains how their actions achieve multiple purposes community approval, political success, liberation of the homeland, personal redemption or honour, refusal to accept subjugation, revenge, anxiety, defiance. Since the configuration of these driving factors is also specifically related to the circumstances of political conflict in each different country, it is only through gaining understanding and knowledge of these conditions that appropriate policies and responses can be developed that will protect the public and counter the scourge of suicide bombings.
Life as a Weapon is a pivotal text in the discussion surrounding suicide bombings, and as such it is of relevance to undergraduate students, postgraduates, and researchers working in areas such as Security Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Terrorism, Criminology and Political Science.
Riaz Hassan is Emeritus Professor at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. His research interests include suicide terrorism, housing and Muslim societies. His recent books include Faithlines: Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Inside Muslim Minds (Melbourne University Press, 2008). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and a member of the Order of Australia.
Life as a Weapon
The global rise of suicide bombings
Riaz Hassan
First published 2011
by Routledge
Published 2014 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2011 Riaz Hassan
The right of Riaz Hassan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset in Times New Roman by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hassan, Riaz, 1937
Life as a weapon: the global rise of suicide bombings / by Riaz Hassan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Suicide bombings. 2. Suicide bombersPsychology.
3. TerrorismHistory. I. Title.
HV6431.H3787 2010
363.325dc22
2010007960
ISBN 9780415588850 (hbk)
ISBN 9780203844571 (ebk)
There are few topics that generate more public concern than terrorism. Since the 1960s, few of the established democracies have not at some time been preoccupied with the fear of terrorism. Across the world, terrorist organisations have seen the political concessions that can be extracted by threatening democratic governments with random acts of violence directed at their citizens. And among the types of terrorist methods that are commonly used, most fear is generated by the threat of suicide bombing. While this was once restricted to Middle Eastern countries, the July 2005 London underground bombings, which claimed the lives of fifty-six people, including the four bombers, showed that Western countries, too, are susceptible to this new form of terrorism.
The publics fear of terrorism stems from its totally random nature: a parked car, a knock on the door or a letter in the post can all deliver an act of violence with complete unpredictability and often fatal consequences. Such random violence has a major impact on patterns of human behaviour. This was aptly demonstrated in some of the earliest social science research, conducted in 19456 in Germany to assess the effectiveness of strategic bombing in the Second World War. The research confirmed the disruption that the bombing caused to the everyday lives of German citizens. More importantly, the greatest civilian implication was the impact on the morale of the German population of the apparently random nature of the bombing: no one could predict which towns or cities would be next to be bombed, and no one knew who might be killed or injured.
The threat of suicide bombing adds a further dimension of fear to the random nature of terrorist violence. Individuals can take steps in their personal security to minimise the possibility of falling victim to terrorism. But a person who uses his or her body as a weapon is almost impossible to guard against, since inter-personal contact is the basis of human society. In this pioneering book, Riaz Hassan analyses the causes and patterns of suicide bombing, its origins and its implications for society. He destroys many myths about suicide bombers and their tactics, and in a series of case studies charts how suicide bombers are recruited and what motivates them. Most importantly, by bringing social theory to bear on the subject, he sheds much-needed light on an emotive and often misunderstood subject.
