Islam has a problem that's what we're
repeatedly told extremist Muslims want
to kill us all in the name of Allah
Jihad and 72 virgins it's their religion
that drives their terrorism the faith
that causes the fanaticism well that's
the conventional wisdom at least but as
is so often the case the conventional
wisdom on terrorism and terrorists is
wrong yes some of the people who join
isil who blow stuff up who kill in the
of God really think they're doing it for
Islam they believe they're holy Warriors
but most aren't motivated by religion
don't take my word for it listen to what
Professor Scott atran one of the world's
leading experts on radicalization told
me last year if you dialogue with these
people if you look what how they
actually move into Jihad which is what
we do uh it's very interesting there is
very little discussion of religion how
about the folks at MI5 the British
domestic intelligence agency an MI5
study found that a large number of those
involved in terrorism do not practice
their faith regularly they're religious
novices just take the recent Paris
attacks two of the attackers the Abdus
Salam brothers sold a bar they owned in
Belgium 6 weeks before they went on
their murderous Rampage in France bar
owners don't exactly fit the Jihadi
image that you have in your minds do
they in fact I'm no Islamic scholar but
I don't remember there being a verse in
the Quran saying go forth and fight the
Jihad but only after you've sold your
bar how about the kui brothers who
shamefully targeted the staff of Charlie
hebo younger brother shareif went to the
mosque yes but went clubbing made rap
music smoked hash drank he couldn't
differentiate between Islam and
Catholicism according to a friend then
there's the two British guys who went
off to fight in Syria and who ordered
two books of Amazon before they left and
they weren't the Holy Quran or the
collected sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad they were Islam for dummies and
the Quran for dummies remember religious
novices or dummies talking of novices
and dummies don't forget the son of
Brothers either the guys behind the
horrific Boston bombings the elder
brother became pretty puritanical but
the younger brother was a dedicated pot
smoker who liked listening to rap music
and drinking with friends I could go on
and on right back to 9/11 some of the 19
hijackers remember were reportedly
spotted in strip clubs in the days and
weeks before the attacks that's the
thing about so-called religious
terrorists they tend not to be all that
religious so if you truly want to
understand why people are joining groups
like isil you're going to have to go
beyond religion