The news that the most infamous Islamic State executioner grew up in affluence in London and graduated from a university should surprise no one.
A remarkable number of notorious terrorists of the past two decades, including Osama bin Laden, were educated and well off. Their road to terror was one of ideological choice, not desperation.
That’s not to say the corrupt, dysfunctional states of the Middle East aren’t breeding grounds for disaffection that propels young people into the orbit of extremist groups — as Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both have pointed out.
But something more complex and atavistic is at play in the appeal of Islamist ideology. And that’s equally true of the Islamic State, as “a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse.”
The West needs to understand its enemies if it is going to defeat them. The jihadist enemy is one that attracts the rich and poor alike.
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