In “Murderous Martyrdom: Religion or Politics?” former roman catholic nun, Karen Armstrong, explains that suicide attacks are not a direct result of religion, but rather a result of political oppression. Karen sites a study conducted by Robert Pape, an American scholar, where suicide attacks occurring between the years 1980 and 2004 were shown to be an attempt to drive out a democratic state 95% of the time. Furthermore, she speaks directly in regard to the 9/11 attacks and Osama Bin Laden when she states that one of the top reasons for the attack was the American troops in Saudi Arabia and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. With those facts in mind, she then expresses the need to make the distinction widely understood as the first
