Masters of terrorism

More than forty percent of Muslim terrorists have an engineering degree, say two sociologists. Are engineers indeed the best terrorists, as the Dutch newspaper De Pers heralds?

University of Technology graduates from developing countries tend to get frustrated by their disappointing career opportunities. These are the findings of sociologists Diego Gambetta, of Nuffield College, Oxford, and Steffen Hertog, of the University of Durham and Sciences Po, Paris. They have co-authored the book, 'Engineers of Jihad', to be published later this year.

According to the two researchers, graduates who followed part of their studies in western countries are even more frustrated, because they compare the western wealth to their local misery. To top it off, it’s generally western expats who get the best jobs, forcing local graduates to work as taxi drivers, for example. This leads to a fertile ground for terrorism.

“I’ve been to many poor countries and I’ve seen this happen. It’s terrible”, says professor Daan Lenstra, dean of the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. “That there is a fertile ground for terrorism is one of those big world problems the university can’t do very much about. Our main objective is to offer outstanding education”, says Lenstra. “And,” he somewhat sadly continues, “it is in our interest to have good relationships with companies, even when they sometimes do bad things. A company like Shell for instance does terrible things in Nigeria.”

“It’s mainly unsuccessful engineers that radicalise”, says professor of ethics, Jeroen van den Hoven (Technology, Policy and Management). “And that is hardly new. Anton Mussert [leader of the Dutch fascist National Socialist Movement (NSB) during WWII – ed.] was a pitiful TU graduate. And also Pol Pot and Eichmann were educated as engineers. The two sociologists say that an engineer is 4.8 times more likely to end up as a terrorist than the average guy, but for an unsuccessful engineer it’s even 7.7 times higher.”
What can universities of technology do to prevent their graduates from becoming terrorists? “The TU attracts many people from India, Pakistan and similar countries”, says Van den Hoven. “And sometimes you can’t help but think: is that quiet boy okay - he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t join the group. What’s wrong? At the moment a separation seems to grow between students based of their provenance or religion. We should be attentive to this.”
“Of course the deans of all faculties and the executive board try to act responsibly”, says Lenstra. “Personally I try to assimilate all my new students and researchers in the group. That way people gain more contacts, which can help in their careers.”

Van den Hoven thinks technical universities especially should act proactively: “The neutral knowledge technical universities offer attracts fundamentalist minds, be they Muslim or Christian, because the instrumental knowledge asks no questions of the ends; it only offers the means. Students should be trained to reflect on the ends of their actions. I think we should include more humanities in the curriculum on a mandatory basis.”