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Always on Watch attended a lecture by would-have-been-a Jihadist and author of “The Roots of Jihad”, Dr. Tawfik Hamid, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

According to the lecture, these are the three primary motivators for jihadists (extracted):

1. Focus on the dream to die as a shaheed (martyr for Allah).

2. The joy of causing pain to infidels. For this reason, [some] Muslims throughout the world rejoiced on 9/11.

3. The feeling of victory. This feeling is both personal, as in Point 2 above, but also one of experiencing victory for Islam, for furthering the will of Allah. Even if the act of terror is a small one, the cause has been furthered.

Dr. Hamid thinks that the reactions of our media are counter-productive and, in fact, contribute to the enabling of the Islamists’ agenda

Our media often make a point of the ineptness and small scope of an attack, planned or carried out. Dr. Hamid maintains that dwelling on the size of an attack is a mistake. Even the smallest attack has a ripple effect on the psyches of Muslims yearning for the caliphate and for jihadists seeking their eternal reward. In other words, there is more to consider than damage and loss of life when an attack occurs.

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