How can we combat terrorism without bullets? Sure, bullets may be needed in some cases in the short-term as immediate self-defense, but what about reducing terrorism in the long term?
As much as some people — including myself at times — would like to think that education is a near cure-all, new research suggests that for terrorism it likely isn’t the answer.
In the Eurekalert post, Study examines impact of education, income on support for suicide bombings, I learned that, “analysis of public opinion data from six predominantly Muslim countries that have experienced suicide bombings….the relationship of education and income levels to support for suicide bombing is complicated at best.”
Darn, no simple solution.
Here is the gist of research finding:
Generally speaking, the study found that people who were more highly educated were more strongly opposed to suicide bombings targeting civilians in their own countries. But support for suicide bombings against foreign targets tended to be consistent across education levels. The study also found that political dissatisfaction was a factor in respondents’ attitudes, with those who felt that Islam was “under threat” more likely to support suicide bombing. [bold mine]
Terroristic acts take many forms, and the motivation behind them likely varies, at least somewhat, from place to place, political situation to political situation. How to rid the world of this type of violence? Unfortunately, it seems just building schools and opening their doors to all won’t do it. It’s more complicated than that.
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