Terrorist profile

According to Marc Sageman, now a Pennsylvania professor and author of a new book on terrorism, of the 400 members of terrorist networks from North Africa, the Middle East, Malaysia and Indonesia that he studies, 75 percent came from upper or middle-class backgrounds and most also from “caring, intact” families. Sixty percent were college educated and 75 percent could be considered professional or semi-professional. Seventy percent were married and most had children. Only half came from a religious background, and a large group raised in North Africa or France grew up in entirely secular communities, which “refutes the notion of culture, often cited as a factor encouraging terrorism.

He told a meeting here last month, says a report in the Washington Times Monday, the idea that terrorists were “inherently evil” was false. “None of these guys, really, are evil -though their acts definitely were.” Neither are they mentally ill, he said. Of those studied, he said, only one percent had hints of psychological disorders - the same as the world base rate. “Most of (them) were the elite of the country,” he added.

  Daily Times article