Investigators said they killed for ISIS. But were they different from ‘regular’ mass killers?

[yallerdawg]

Source: Washington Post, by Abigail Hauslohner, Joel Achenbach, Ellen Nakashima

For years, FBI officials and other national security experts have said that apparent lone wolves such as Adan and Ahmad Khan Rahami, charged in last weekend’s New York bombing, have no discernible profile that could be used to head off terrorist acts. But some counterterrorism experts who studied attackers motivated by jihadist ideology say they often exhibit traits similar to those of non-Muslim mass killers who have attacked schools, churches and workplaces.

“They share common behavioral and psychological characteristics,” said John Cohen, a criminal justice professor at Rutgers University and the former counterterrorism coordinator at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “They’re the same people.”

Many studies of mass killers show that they had serious personal or psychological issues, regardless of their motives or religious identity. They bounced from job to job, struggled to find friends or romantic partners, or felt bullied by their peers. Some had traumatic home lives. Others struggled with a profound sense of shame.

Awareness of these shared traits could help focus FBI questioning of certain young men who already have come to the attention of law enforcement, these experts say.

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Read it at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/investigators-said-they-killed-for-isis-but-were-they-different-from-regular-mass-killers/2016/09/23/0e97949a-80c2-11e6-b002-307601806392_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_killers-845pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

[Albertoo]

1. One difference is that religion makes killing feel 'justified'

I mean, if a holy book tells you to slay the unbelievers,

it's a gift wrapped justification to do pretty much as you please.

[yallerdawg]

3. The killer says, "God told me to."

That is not religion. That is not the belief of 1.7 billion Muslims.

Like a "Christian" killer, an individual may 'justify' it from the perspective of a holy book, but religion didn't create the killer.

And the vast majority of Muslims disagree that the Quran tells Muslims to "slay the unbelievers." Just as much of the Old Testament is disavowed by the vast majority of Christians.

[Albertoo]

5. Yes, believers are irrational and have no solid ground for their claims

IF believers are free to pick and choose, discarding the passages which are too obviously murderous crap, it does mean that the books are not that 'holy'.

Which is what I generally say about 'religions': it's meaningless.

[ck4829]

2. You'd need a lot of leg shackles, straitjackets, and armed guards on towers but...

A group discussion with people like Dylann Roof, Anders Breivik, Jason Dalton and captured Daesh killers all talking to each other would be very interesting to say the least.

"Who among you is the most correct?" and then run behind a glass plate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Christs_of_Ypsilanti

[Ex Lurker]

4. Eric Rudolph, Ted Kazinski, and Ramzi Yousef are on the same row at ADX Florence

and have become good friends, apprently.

As to the OP, ISIS deliberately targets the disaffected, the disturbed, the alienated with their propaganda, so it's no surprise that there's a lot of overlap.