>From the Emir of Qatar:
>
>"As a Muslim, I can tell you that the problem isn’t Islam: it’s hopelessness. It’s the kind of hopelessness that abounds in the Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps, and in war-weary towns and villages in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Gaza. It’s the hopelessness we see in the poorer neighborhoods of Europe’s great cities, and, yes, even in the United States. And it is this hopelessness, which knows no state or religion, that we need to address if we are to stem the tide of terrorism."
>
>Even if people come up with other explanations, the point has been made here before: the devil makes work for idle hands whether they be in Detroit ghettos or Iraqi bombsites. The same youth who becomes radicalized in the absence of anything else to occupy his attention need only be given opportunity for advancement, a credible chance to work hard and earn promotions to save enough for their first car even if it is the sort of beaten up wreck that many of us started with, and suddenly there's no time for or interest in bombs or attacks. Thus the core psychopaths increasingly are isolated and find it harder to recruit or hide amongst the population. Which is how the Irish troubles were solved, btw. Of course it probably helps if mom wasn't killed by a drone or baby sister starved to death during sanctions, but that's not something we can go back and change now.

My uncle is a social psychologist. He did research among young skinheads (incidentally in Detroit) and wrote a fascinating book about it: http://www.amazon.com/The-Racist-Mind-Portraits-Neo-Nazis/dp/0140234497. It's years since I read it, but I recall that many of these young men were drawn in for the relationships, not the philosophy.

Tamar