A Glimpse into the Terrorist Mind

SUICIDE bombers, like the one who blew up the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, confront the world with the most cost-effective of all terrorist weapons, designed to wreak psychological and physical havoc on enemies, attempting to make them capitulate.

Saboteurs who want to fight and live, such as Saddam loyalists, are not difficult to defeat. But a suicide bomber fears neither capture, interrogation nor death. He needs no escape plan when he attacks high-profile, densely populated targets like Baghdad's UN headquarters. He is the most powerful weapon there is for those seeking to destabilise Iraq and make it ungovernable.

What makes an ordinary Muslim become a suicide bomber?

The behaviour of the terrorists on trial in Indonesia two months ago offered a glimpse into the terrorist mind. On Aug 7, the world was treated to a bizarre court scene in Bali.

Seated before a panel of five red-robed Indonesian judges, Amrozi Nurhasyim, 41, was found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to death by firing squad for his role in the Bali bombings on Oct 12 last year. He had killed 202 people - mostly foreigners, including 88 Australians - and had injured about 350 others.

Amrozi, a member of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) - a terrorist network linked to Al-Qaeda - broke into a grin and punched the air, shouting, 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great). He then turned to face the survivors and families of those he had killed, flashing a wide grin and giving a thumbs-up sign with both arms outstretched. 'I'll be happy to die a martyr,' he said. 'After me,there will be a million more Amrozis.'

Imam Samudra, another JI member and a mastermind of the Bali bombings, told the court that the attack was in retribution for the United States' war on Afghanistan. 'Muslims have been made scapegoats for American terrorism around the world... I'd like to say thank you to the prosecution team, which has demanded the death sentence. Because, in death we live peacefully, and in death we draw near to God.'

An Australian victim who was at the trial and who had lost both legs in the blast said: 'It's all bullshit (what Samudra said)... it all takes a bit to sink in. I'm glad I came.'

At the same time, in Jakarta, Abu Bakar Bashir was charged with being the spiritual head of JI and with being responsible for the bombings of several Christian churches in December 2000. He is a charismatic Muslim cleric who, through his religious schools, had recruited both Amrozi and Imam Samudra. Many terror suspects are alumni of his school.

Bashir was acquitted of the serious charge of leading JI and ordering a series of attacks, but he was sentenced to four years in jail for lesser offences. His comment: 'I sell many knives, but I am not responsible for how they are used.'

Sentencing the Bali bombers to death is like killing worker bees. The queen bees - the charismatic preachers who teach a deviant form of Islam in their religious schools - will produce many more workers.

When Al-Qaeda first infiltrated Mindanao in the southern Philippines in the late 1990s, Arab teachers had to carry out the suicide bombings. Prolonged ideological indoctrination in Wahhabi Islamism has made some Filipino Muslims believe that it is the duty of every Muslim to wage jihad; that armed struggle is the only way to bring back pure Islam and that the greatest act of devotion is to sacrifice one's life for jihad.

Now Arab fundamentalists have succeeded in twisting the teachings of Islam in Indonesia. One of the Bali bombs was set off by an Indonesian Muslim. And at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel bombing in August, the severed head of the driver of the bomb-laden SUV was that of Asmar Latin Sani, 28, a JI member who had attended the Islamic boarding school run by Bashir. Before carrying out his mission, he received blessings from JI leaders to 'carry out this great duty for God'.

Before Islam arrived - brought by Indian traders, not Arab conquerors - in the 1400s, Java had a history of many centuries of Hindu and Buddhist humanist teachings. Hence, the Javanese are the most tolerant and eclectic of Muslims. It is difficult to believe that some among them are now ready to blow themselves up in order to destroy the perceived enemies of Arab Palestinians.

Psychologists who study such recruits have found that they are chosen because they are vulnerable to religious indoctrination by charismatic preachers who employ strict discipline. These preachers implant the psychology of self-sacrifice until martyrdom becomes the recruits' highest purpose in life.

These followers believe that in return for their sacrifice, they will become shahids (martyrs); that all their sins will be forgiven; and that they will have a place in shurga (paradise), where 72 houris (virgins) await them.

Governments can beef up their intelligence services, ferret out and destroy terrorist networks and harden potential targets. But only Muslims themselves - those with a moderate, more modern approach to life - can fight the fundamentalists for control of the Muslim soul.

Muslims must counter the terrorist ideology that is based on a perverted interpretation of Islam. This battle will be joined when the fundamentalist Islamic terrorists seek to displace their present Muslim leaders, as they must if they are to set up their version of the Islamic state.