Well, very interesting, but I must disagree with Mr. Manji about it being "the last word." Historically, most of the leaders of any important radical or dissident movements have come from the middle class. But where do their followers come from? Most are not, I dare to say, well-fed couch potatoes. I would guess, without really being qualified too, that a fair amount of "muslim extremists" start out as extremists, rather than muslims. In other words, if there were viable secular marxist movements for them to join, they never would have become involved with fundamentalism. But the "pan-arabist" quasi-Marxist movements have been quashed (three guesses as to who quashed them) in favor of Bin-Laden and others. This might explain the story, if its true, that some of the 9-11 hijackers spent their last night in a strip club, getting s**t-faced. If they did, they weren't THAT fundamentalist.
I think this article is very close. I think the root cause of terrorism is the inability of terrorists to feel like they are fully in control of their own lives. I think these suicide bombings are the result of these people's feeling that it's the most powerful thing they can do. To combat terrorism liberty needs to become a part of these people's lives. Those people that have freedom need to stand up for those that don't.
In 1299 C.E., Marco Polo described Sheikh Alaodin, who maintained his Assassins in his hideout in the mountains (in present-day Iran). Whenever Alaodin desired to have someone killed, he would “take some of these Assassins of his and send them wherever he might wish, telling them that he was minded to dispatch them to Paradise: they were to go accordingly and kill such and such a man; if they died on their mission, they would go there all the sooner. Those who received such a command obeyed it with a right good will, more readily than anything else they might have been called on to do. Away they went and did all that they were commanded. Thus it happened that no one ever escaped when the Sheikh of the Mountains desired his death.” Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
A thought just occurred to me. These "middle class" suicide bombers and upper crust Saudi al-Quida are very much like the "second sons" of Christian noblemen that went on the crusades . . . . . . . Hmmmm.