Confessions of Another Middle-Class TerroristIn the post–Major Hasan/Abdulmutallab era, we dont often hear the once-popular canard that poverty, oppression, and genuine grievances drive victimized Muslims — especially in the West — into the ranks of radical Islamic terrorism.
But the latest yuppie terrorist — Omar Hammami, the Alabaman who went to Somalia to kill non-believers and rant about the evil America that nourished him — is more candid than most. In a recent New York Times Magazine piece, Hammami is quoted as rejecting the claim that socioeconomic factors drove his own murderous extremism: “They cant blame it on poverty or any of that stuff. They will have to realize that its an ideology and its a way of life that make people change. They will also have to realize that their political agendas need to be fixed.”
