Repression of any kind (sexual, etc) has negative effects. It is astounding that Islam has been hijacked by this small group of extremists-- recruiting through all forms of coercion, dead-end existence as experienced by these young men, etc.
Americans need to learn and be engaged in the Arab world --- and hopefully a lasting peace can be achieved.

The only terrorist I know are those religious freaks that want to eat god and the entire earth, this beigns love land and money and luxury and ppl, they are relentless in the conquer of everything as if they going to live forever, its this lazy demons who steal or would charge the air you breath if it was possible, and the worst part is that they have the whole world in trance..but these demons are beifn xposed everyday..and like vampirea theyre gonna burn when the light if reason hits them

The Quran is very specific in that one who dies while fighting the enemies of Islam will go to Paradise and get "70 houris." And that belief is at least as strong as the Evangelical Christian belief in the Rapture, or the religous Jewish belief in the eventual coming of the Messiah.
It is a belief that is instilled from childhood, and cannot be dismissed. People believe what they are taught to believe as children.

"Terror Free Tomorrow" — from which Mr. Ballen hails — is heavily conservative. Lee Hamilton is the most moderate voice I saw on its advisory board.

Other advisors include John McCain, hysterically bigoted right-winger Bill Frist, and conservative Tom Kean.

Ballen's line is barely concealed anti-Muslim bigotry.

As I already said, the US dwarves all of the violence of Islamist radicals in the past 10 years. Hundreds of thousands killed by US forces.

Pierre Rehov showed quite a few women.

One said that Allah would make her the most beautiful woman and she would select a guy to marry.

Remember a girl who was burned by a kerosene lamp in Gaza? She was trying to blow up Israeli hospital where she was treated. Again -- she had injuries that made her ineligible for marriage. This was a way for her to get a new set of cards....

Do we see a lot of terrorist activity in countries with a large sex imbalance like in China?

"Emotional attachment to extremism" -- and violence.

It seems to me that the people who show -- overwhelmingly -- the greatest attachment to extremism and violence today are Americans, lead by political leaders who just can't get enough war.

"too far"

There is a way to fight it. Put their remains together with a pig and publicize it. This means - in their belief - that they would not get to heaven.

This would stop it.

Isn't it a bit risky to broadcast over public radio your method of getting close to those whom you must interrogate? Sort of like revealing trade secrets?

"some Muslims sometimes are carried to far" - love it.

In Pierre Rehov's movie one character was sent by his extended clan to be a shahid, so that when THEY die he will get a word for them to Allah since he would be very close.

It is like getting ahead of a line. Very smart...

I'm the child of Holocaust survivors born in a refugee camp in Germany. If my parents and my religion had taught me that killing enemies of my clan, my people and my religion would give me 70 virgins in heaven alongside Moses, I'd have put on a suicide belt and gone into the middle of Munich and blown up as many GErmans as possible, including myself too. Why not?

Second, there is nothing "extreme" in such views. We all struggle in life, and these people believe that their future "life" will be better if they murder a kafir or two.

Listen, if I had been totally sexually repressed, and my religion promised to give me 70 virgins in paradise if I die killing an infidel, I might have become a suicide bomber too.

Pierre Rehov has a great documentary "Suicide Killers" where he interviewed failed and future suicide bombers. There is little commentary in the movie - only statements from these people (some in Israeli jails, some still free). It appears that all of them operate under a simple religious belief that they will be rewarded in the after-life by Allah, and, thus, they found simple solution to the life's problems by getting into heaven on the backs of the infidels they kill.

From that point, the comment from Ed about Pope Benedict is absolutely hilarious.

I think it's a mistake to say that absolute beliefs are a cause of extremism: I think it's their absence that causes extremism. If a young man grows up and is told there is no absolute truth, hungering for it, he might accept anything that claims that it's absolute truth, uncritically. (Also see Pope Benedict's speech to the German Parliament: extremism fills the void left when culture - all except science - is made into a subculture.)