That Guardian article is excellent. Scott Atran is the author of 'Talking to the Enemy: Violent Extremism, Sacred Values and What it Means to be Human'.
It's a huge, painstaking study of Islamic radicalism and suicide terrorism in which he argues - from what I can tell - that we have completely failed to understand this phenomenon.
It's one of over 40 books I have acquired on Islam,jihadism, Middle Eastern history and related topics so that - over the next two or three years - I can get better acquainted with all the relevant, multi-disciplinary contours of this mess. I haven't read it yet but I should have before the Spring. It was recommended to a friend of mine who is also researching the same territory.
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