How al Qaeda Dupes Its Followers -- Foreign Policy
Osama bin Laden's terror network has perfected the art of masking its unpopular agenda with a recruitment pitch that can hook just about anyone.
Last week, five young men from northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., were arrested in Pakistan, alleged to have been eager volunteers for a terrorist-linked militant group in a region rife with insurgency. The facts remain sparse so far, but this would not be the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that Americans have left their country to heed al Qaeda's call to arms.
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My Comment: There is always a small percentage of any population in which a message of violence and revenge will always resonate with them. The key .... if you wish to exploit these people for your cause .... is to make sure that you can fine tune your message to what this small percentage are already sympathetic with. Communists have been successful with this method for decades, and third world armed liberation movements have been using this to gather support for their own tribal/country/ethnic/political cause as for as long as I can remember.
The difference with Al Qaeda and what it has been able to accomplish, is that it is using religion (and its history) as the major component in its war against its adversaries. This is a powerful tool .... that Al Qaeda and religious leaders who support their cause have been masters at in manipulating it and using it for their cause.