Cognitive dissonance between Arabic world view and modern world is the cause of suicidal distress.

Muslims live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance. Their Islamic mind is incapable of coping with the freedoms of the modern world. They are torn apart by two opposing forces. On one hand there is freedom, which they find irresistibly seductive and at the same time sinful and immoral. On the other hand there is the fear of hell. In this tug-of-war, fear always wins. Fear is a lot more powerful than the desire to be free, especially if that freedom is regarded as wicked and sinful. Freedom will never wean Muslims from Islam. They respond to fear. This makes them withdraw into their protective shell, and become more and more extremist.

They sin, they feel guilty, and to overcome their guilt they become jihadis. This, in a nutshell, is the reason for the revival of jihad. Muslims have suddenly come in contact with the modern western world and they are not equipped for it. They are fascinated by it, while at the same time they fear it, believe it leads them to hell, and they want to destroy it. It is under this light that we must understand Muslims. Only then can we understand what drives them to terrorism. Islamic terrorists are not troubled or insane. They are normal people. The only thing troubling about them is that they believe in a religion which holds them hostage to fear, controls their thoughts and actions, and glorifies murder as the highest form of devotion.