Responding to the terrorist attacks last weekend in Egypt, Turkey, Somalia, Yemen, and Nigeria—which collectively left some 200 people dead—Steven A. Cook cautions against overanalyzing:
There are compelling explanations as to why people are attracted to extremism. The exhaustive academic literature on terrorism tells us that there are political ends for the violence. The perpetrators [of the Coptic-church bombing in Cairo] want to destabilize Egypt and usher in their Islamist vision of an Islamic state. In Turkey, the goal [of the synchronized bombings in Istanbul] is to undermine the state in the service of Kurdish independence. [But] something else is also at play: the glorification of violence for violence’s sake. If there is any doubt about this, take note of the footage extremists have offered to the world of their bloodshed and mayhem. . . .
Both the Egyptian and Turkish governments have lamentable records on human rights. They have used coercion and violence to establish political control in societies where so much has become contested over the last three to five years. . . . [Yet] the repression-radicalization dynamic, in which people determine that they have no recourse other than taking up arms in the face of repression, only tells part of the story. What did the people praying on a Sunday morning have to do with the Egyptian state’s violence? Nothing. And the people killed in [Istanbul], what did they have to do with [Turkey’s brutal treatment of its Kurds]? Nothing. . . . [O]nly in the minds of people like the Qatar-based Islamist preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who argues that all Israelis are legitimate targets because they all serve in the Israel Defense Forces at one time or another, does that make otherwise innocent people legitimate targets.
The perpetrators of the attacks this weekend in Egypt (no one has yet claimed responsibility) and in Turkey (the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, claimed responsibility), murdered people because that is what they do. Full stop. No other explanation needed.
Read more on From the Potomac to the Euphrates: http://blogs.cfr.org/cook/2016/12/13/violence-for-violences-sake/