From the Terrorists' Point of View

Fathali M. Moghaddam is Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University. An internationally known, Iranian-born and British-educated psychologist, he has extensive consulting and research experience regarding intergroup conflict and terrorism. He previously held positions with McGill University and the United Nations. Moghaddam taught and researched in Iran for five years immediately following the 1978-79 revolution. He is the author of numerous books, including his forthcoming volume Multiculturalism, Democracy and Intergroup Relations (2007). Moghaddam was awarded the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence, Division 48 of the American Psychological Association.

• PrefaceWhy Consider the Terrorists' Point of View?Identity Needs and GlobalizationThe Staircase to TerrorismGround Floor: Growing Dissatisfaction Among the MultitudesFirst Floor: How Do We Fight This Unfair System?Second Floor: Those Americans Are to Blame!Third Floor: The Ends Justify the MeansFourth Floor: It's Us against ThemFifth Floor: This "Heroic" Act Will Improve the WorldContextualized Democracy as a Solution to TerrorismSelected Bibliography

In this book, Moghaddam, the author of numerous textbooks on social psychology, explains to Americans that contemporary Islamic terrorists are not crazy or suicidal. They become terrorists because their repressive societies allow their need for identity to be fulfilled only through such relatively autonomous Islamic organizations as terrorist groups. The failure to allow individual rights and individual development interacts with the dead history cultures to disseminate despair. Moghaddam also shows that while the closed Islamic societies shape conditions for developing the terrorist commitment to destruction, U.S. policy in the region, supporting despotic governments and Israel's repression of Palestine, has made the United States an inevitable target. He asserts that military efforts will not defeat Middle Eastern terrorism until U.S. policy modifies its support of current oppressive governments and more intelligently supports democratic conditions in the Middle East. The combination of theoretical analysis and concrete examples sometimes makes for awkward and dense prose, but the importance of the topic and Moghaddam's expertise in the psychology of individuals and societies along with his familiarity with Iran and Iraq make this a useful addition to libraries.