Occupation, not Islam, 'drives suicide attacks'

EXCERPT:
...In the wake of Sept. 11, Robert Pape, a professor
in international security affairs at The University of
Chicago, speculated on TV news shows on the causes of
suicide terrorism.

"Like everyone else, I jumped to the conclusion that
it was radical Islam," he says. "I even bought a Koran
to see what's wrong with Islam."

After searching for data on suicide terrorism and
finding that the government did not begin to track
such attacks until 2000, Pape began to collect his own
information. He compiled data on 462 suicide bombings
from 1980 to 2004 and later updated his findings to
2006. His book Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of
Suicide Terrorism was published in 2005.

Contrary to his initial impression, Pape discovered
that half of the 462 suicide attacks were by people
who were secular or even anti-religious. The world
leaders in suicide bombings were members of the Tamil
Tigers of Sri Lanka, a Marxist and Hindu group....

FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2007/06/08/news/local/islam0608.txt