Sexual Frustration Driving Muslim Youths to Militant Islamism
Aby July 6th, 2007
The medieval king who persecuted St. Valentine must have had similar ideas when he banned marriages to get more warriors. He was of the view that married men who had more sex would not be able to make good warriors. His idea was not without a base however, as numerous historical trends and facts would show, including the profiles of current militant Islamist youths. Sexual deprivation does have an effect on organised violence as it is often channelled to terrorism as an outlet for the frustration.
Sexual frustration of unmarried young boys in their late teens and twenties did help Mao Zedong organise a ruthless, agressive and brutal thug army during the Cultural Revolution of China. It also helped Mahmoud Ghazni and the Islamic prophet Muhammad gain power; by enticing young, sexually deprived warriors with the promise of ‘booty women’, if lands were conquered or 72 houris (virgin women) in paradise if they perished in the attempt. Sexual frustration was one factor, if not the main driving force behind the nationalist Blackshirts of Imperial Japan, as evident from the trend where Japanese invading soldiers predated on women in the captured countries.
A cartoon by jesusandmo.net, commenting on how sexual deprivation leads Muslims boys to terrorism.
The scientific basis for the connection between sexual deprivation and violent instincts in men can be explained as the effects of the hormone testosterone, which causes both sexual desire and aggression in the human males. A high testosterone level in the body expresses itself in undesirably aggressive ways if sexual or other alternative outlets are not available. The methods of expression depends on the social system and taboos at the place the person lives in; in the post World War 2 world, physically intensive sports and games like cricket, tennis, football, etc. are used to keep high levels of male testosterone in control (as opposed to wars and asceticism in some places). Testosterone explains why wars are almost always initiated and fuelled by men which gives birth to the phrase “testosterone fuelled wars”. In the Islamic world the choices for these outlets are limited and hence the young men resort to religious fanaticism to distract themselves, or to terrorism with the hopes of pleasures in paradise.
Proponents of wars and terrorism in the name of Islam often exploited the frustration of sexually deprived young males and tantalised them with the prospect of captured women as ‘war booty’ if they succeeded. If they died, 72 lovely virgins in paradise as ‘houris’ would be provided to them which makes these boys ready to die for it, as suicide bombers. In this context, the Islamic terrorists differ from the real-politik terrorists like IRA or LTTE as the latter would not kill themselves through suicide bombing; being dead they would hardly achieve any personal gains. They would rather fight and kill while trying to protect their lives if possible, which reduced their driving force and made them less committed to violence than the Islamists.
The sexual frustration of the youths in the Arab world and Islamic societies has economic, legal and social reasons. In the Arab countries education is generally low and jobs are scarce. It results in young men being unable to marry till their late 20s and 30s, as without employment marriage would not be economically viable. Sex without marriage is a taboo and illegal in Islamic countries and is punishable by flogging in first three offences and death in the fourth offence in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran. As a result there are unmarried men in cities like Jeddah, Sanaa, Damascus, etc. who live with their parents, anxiously frustrated about their sexual future. The access to western television channels with sexually stimulating themes create frustration, envy and hate for the luxuries enjoyed by the west and make their mind fertile ground for militant recruiters, for the fight against ‘the morally corrupt west’. The pattern can be seen in the profiles of militant Muslim youths both in Europe and Arab world, a majority of whom are in their late teens or early twenties - unmarried, virgins and contain a deep hatred for the free world.
This is not to imply that sexual frustration is the only cause for Islamic terrorism as there are other religious and political factors, each of which have their importance to understand the mind of a terrorist suicide attacker. This is also not to say that sexual deprivation leads to violence and terrorism in all cases, if that were so we would have faced destruction everywhere. But it would also be imprudent to throw away a theory with strong evidences and practical cases to back it up. As Ian Buruman of The Guardian says, “It has long been assumed that young men are better fighters when they are deprived of sex, like slavering dogs fighting in a pit.” We should never underestimate for a moment, the blinding passion which drives these young boys to blow themselves up, in the expectations of 72 eternal virgins in paradise.
More Information -
- Sex and Taboos In The Islamic World - Amira El Ahl and Daniel Steinvorth
- How a British Jihadi Saw The Light - Times Online, London
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