Sex and Islamic Suicide Terrorism
He is a pious man. A believer.
He puts on a pack. Walks into a crowd. And detonates an explosion that will blow him and many innocent bystanders to bits
An Islamic suicide terrorist.
Sex-negativity is an important part of the system that creates him. But in the studies of terrorists you will find very little about their attitudes to erotic pleasure.
So here is the idea.
Islamic terrorists are almost 100% of an age (16-34) when testosterone levels are their highest in the male lifespan.
Testosterone is an imperious hormone. It commands attention. It compels action. Anyone doubtful about the potency of the chemical need only take a shot or two of it to see its effects.
Testosterone is lusty. It spurs sexual charge and the hunger for release. Exactly as nature intended.
When we resist that powerful drive, we hurt. Our genes want us to pay a price for disobeying commands that have kept our species alive for countless generations.
But imperious religions are threatened by imperious genes. Throughout history domineering religious traditions have sought to subdue the sex drive. Drive it into the shadows of existence.
Islam in most of the modern Middle East, is one such tradition. To be a young man in those cultures and full of the lust that is natural and healthy for a testosterone primed body, is to be sexually unfulfilled.
And the young men who have internalized autocratic Islam the deepest are the most sexually frustrated of all.
In their world, masturbation is a serious sin. Sex education is non-existent. Dating is impossible. Marriages are arranged. Every form of sexual media is criminalized.
To embrace traditional Islam is to be at war with your own sexual impulses.
Consider, for example, Mohamend Atta, the man who led the 9/11 bombings. He never had sex. He was repelled by images of nudity, even classic art paintings. His will instructed that his genitals not be touched during the preparation of his corpse, and that no women come near his grave.
Such uncompromising sex-negativity has predictable outcomes.
First, it diminishes the joy of living. Erotic pleasure is a key element of human happiness. Our genes designed it that way. Remove that source of vitality, and life becomes mundane, dry, rigid. Killing your sexuality makes killing yourself much easier.
Second, constant sexual self-restraint is psychologically de-stabilizing. When the body’s normal impulses are perpetually denied, the part of the brain that exercises that over-control gets unnaturally inflated, impairing our intitution and wisdom. An unbalanced brain becomes highly suggestible. Not anchored in corporeal practicality, thought tends to the preposterous. Absurd ideas become credible. And so the sickening irrationality of the notion that “God” commands the killing of innocent bystanders becomes accepted as true.
Third, the internal war on one’s own sexuality generates rage. Sexually frustrated men are not happy campers. Their testosterone needs an outlet. When women don’t “fuck the war” out of men, they fight.
And sexually frustrated men tend not to be courageous, because real courage requires heart, and the heart withers in the midst of perpetual self conflict and pain. So sex-hating men look for easy targets. Like women, or gays, or ….innocent bystanders with Western values.
The sexually permissive West is a perfect icon of hate for people with deep sexual wounds. If sex is evil then so too are the cultures which normalize it.
Assemble the pieces of this profile and Islamic terrorism is more easily understood. The bodies of sexless men have little to live for. Their minds have much to die for and are primed to accept the most irrational pretexts to justify their demise.
So next time you hear about a suicide bomber, think about their attitude to sex. Think about how hating a part of oneself can cause one to hate everything else.