Jennifer_SFBA
08/16/06, 04:31 pm
A friend e-mailed me the interview below. There is value in it I think, so I thought I'd posting it:
The psychology behind suicide bombings.
By - Pierre Rehov, documentary filmmaker
On July 15, MSNBC's "Connected" program discussed the July 7th London attacks.
One of the guests was Pierre Rehov, a French filmmaker who has filmed six
documentaries on the intifada by going undercover in the Palestinian areas.
Pierre's upcoming film, "Suicide Killers," is based on interviews that he
conducted with the families of suicide bombers and would-be bombers in an
attempt to find out why they do it. Pierre agreed to a request for a Q&A
interview here about his work on the new film.
Q - What inspired you to produce "Suicide Killers," your seventh film?
A - I started working with victims of suicide attacks to make a
film on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) when I became
fascinated with the personalities of those who had committed those
crimes, as they were described again and again by their victims.
Especially the fact that suicide bombers are all smiling one second
before they blow themselves up.
Q - Why is this film especially important?
A - People don't understand the devastating culture behind this
unbelievable phenomenon. My film is not politically correct
because it addresses the real problem, showing the real face of Islam.
It points the finger against a culture of hatred in which the uneducated
are brainwashed to a level where their only solution in life
becomes to kill themselves and kill others in the name of a God whose
word, as transmitted by other men, has become their only certitude.
Q - What insights did you gain from making this film? What do you
know that other experts do not know?
A - I came to the conclusion that we are facing a neurosis at
the level of an entire civilization. Most neuroses have in common a
dramatic event, generally linked to an unacceptable sexual
behavior. In this case, we are talking of kids living all their lives in
pure frustration, with no opportunity to experience sex, love,
tenderness or even understanding from the opposite sex. The separation
between men and women in Islam is absolute. So is contempt toward
women, who are totally dominated by men. This leads to a situation of pure
anxiety, in which normal behavior is not possible. It is no
coincidence that suicide killers are mostly young men dominated
subconsciously by an overwhelming libido that they not only
cannot satisfy but are afraid of, as if it is the work of the devil.
Since Islam describes heaven as a place where everything on
Earth will finally be allowed, and promises 72 virgins to those
frustrated kids, killing others and killing themselves to reach this
redemption becomes their only solution.
Q - What was it like to interview would-be suicide bombers, their families
and survivors of suicide bombings?
A - It was a fascinating and a terrifying experience. You are
dealing with seemingly normal people with very nice manners who have
their own logic, which to a certain extent can make sense since they
are so convinced that what they say is true. It is like dealing with
pure craziness, like interviewing people in an asylum, since what
they say, is for them, the absolute truth. I hear a mother saying
"Thank God, my son is dead." Her son had became a shaheed, a martyr,
which for her was a greater source of pride than if he had became an
engineer, a doctor or a winner of the Nobel Prize.
This system of values works completely backwards since their
interpretation of Islam worships death much more than life. You
are facing people whose only dream, only achievement goal is to
fulfill what they believe to be their destiny, namely to be a Shaheed
or the family of a shaheed.
They don't see the innocent being killed, they only see the
impure that they have to destroy.
Q - You say suicide bombers experience a moment of
absolute power, beyond punishment. Is death the ultimate power?
A - Not death as an end, but death as a door opener to the
after life. They are seeking the reward that God has promised them.
They work for God, the ultimate authority, above all human
laws. They therefore experience this single delusional second of
absolute power, where nothing bad can ever happen to them, since
they become God's sword.
Q - Is there a suicide bomber personality profile? Describe the
psychopathology.
A - Generally kids between 15 and 25 bearing a lot of complexes,
generally inferiority complexes. They must have been fed with
religion. They usually have a lack of developed personality.
Usually they are impressionable idealists. In the western world they
would easily have become drug addicts, but not criminals.
Interestingly, they are not criminals since they don't see good and
evil the same way that we do. If they had been raised in an Occidental
culture, they would have hated violence. But they constantly battle against
their own death anxiety. The only solution to this deep-seated
pathology is to be willing to die and be rewarded in the afterlife in
Paradise.
The psychology behind suicide bombings.
By - Pierre Rehov, documentary filmmaker
On July 15, MSNBC's "Connected" program discussed the July 7th London attacks.
One of the guests was Pierre Rehov, a French filmmaker who has filmed six
documentaries on the intifada by going undercover in the Palestinian areas.
Pierre's upcoming film, "Suicide Killers," is based on interviews that he
conducted with the families of suicide bombers and would-be bombers in an
attempt to find out why they do it. Pierre agreed to a request for a Q&A
interview here about his work on the new film.
Q - What inspired you to produce "Suicide Killers," your seventh film?
A - I started working with victims of suicide attacks to make a
film on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) when I became
fascinated with the personalities of those who had committed those
crimes, as they were described again and again by their victims.
Especially the fact that suicide bombers are all smiling one second
before they blow themselves up.
Q - Why is this film especially important?
A - People don't understand the devastating culture behind this
unbelievable phenomenon. My film is not politically correct
because it addresses the real problem, showing the real face of Islam.
It points the finger against a culture of hatred in which the uneducated
are brainwashed to a level where their only solution in life
becomes to kill themselves and kill others in the name of a God whose
word, as transmitted by other men, has become their only certitude.
Q - What insights did you gain from making this film? What do you
know that other experts do not know?
A - I came to the conclusion that we are facing a neurosis at
the level of an entire civilization. Most neuroses have in common a
dramatic event, generally linked to an unacceptable sexual
behavior. In this case, we are talking of kids living all their lives in
pure frustration, with no opportunity to experience sex, love,
tenderness or even understanding from the opposite sex. The separation
between men and women in Islam is absolute. So is contempt toward
women, who are totally dominated by men. This leads to a situation of pure
anxiety, in which normal behavior is not possible. It is no
coincidence that suicide killers are mostly young men dominated
subconsciously by an overwhelming libido that they not only
cannot satisfy but are afraid of, as if it is the work of the devil.
Since Islam describes heaven as a place where everything on
Earth will finally be allowed, and promises 72 virgins to those
frustrated kids, killing others and killing themselves to reach this
redemption becomes their only solution.
Q - What was it like to interview would-be suicide bombers, their families
and survivors of suicide bombings?
A - It was a fascinating and a terrifying experience. You are
dealing with seemingly normal people with very nice manners who have
their own logic, which to a certain extent can make sense since they
are so convinced that what they say is true. It is like dealing with
pure craziness, like interviewing people in an asylum, since what
they say, is for them, the absolute truth. I hear a mother saying
"Thank God, my son is dead." Her son had became a shaheed, a martyr,
which for her was a greater source of pride than if he had became an
engineer, a doctor or a winner of the Nobel Prize.
This system of values works completely backwards since their
interpretation of Islam worships death much more than life. You
are facing people whose only dream, only achievement goal is to
fulfill what they believe to be their destiny, namely to be a Shaheed
or the family of a shaheed.
They don't see the innocent being killed, they only see the
impure that they have to destroy.
Q - You say suicide bombers experience a moment of
absolute power, beyond punishment. Is death the ultimate power?
A - Not death as an end, but death as a door opener to the
after life. They are seeking the reward that God has promised them.
They work for God, the ultimate authority, above all human
laws. They therefore experience this single delusional second of
absolute power, where nothing bad can ever happen to them, since
they become God's sword.
Q - Is there a suicide bomber personality profile? Describe the
psychopathology.
A - Generally kids between 15 and 25 bearing a lot of complexes,
generally inferiority complexes. They must have been fed with
religion. They usually have a lack of developed personality.
Usually they are impressionable idealists. In the western world they
would easily have become drug addicts, but not criminals.
Interestingly, they are not criminals since they don't see good and
evil the same way that we do. If they had been raised in an Occidental
culture, they would have hated violence. But they constantly battle against
their own death anxiety. The only solution to this deep-seated
pathology is to be willing to die and be rewarded in the afterlife in
Paradise.