The article aims at a redefinition of Islamic suicide terrorist’s motivation. It describes the basic determinants and conceptualizations of terrorism and discusses major theories and explanations of that phenomenon from an individualistic and sociocultural perspective. Due to the fact that suicide terrorism is a very distinct and narrow subcategory of terrorism, the paper addresses the questions of Why it is unique? and in What ways it is distinct from (“normal”) terrorism in general? Given the absence of convincing psychological, sociological and educational evidence that terrorists (and especially suicide terrorists) differ in any particular way from the normal population, the author has developed and proposed an “altruistic” suicide-terrorist model. The proposed model treats suicide terrorism as a process of continuous communication/education between the terrorist and his/her reference group in which psychosocial bonds are developed between the individual and the terrorist organization. The process is determined by: (1) an erroneous understanding of jihad, (2) the existence of conducive external conditions, such as frustration underpinned by poor living standards and a sectarian mentality negating the outside world and its values, and (3) a high level of altruism (and in particular reciprocal altruism) in would-be suicide bombers.

Prejudice-based bullying against minorities. On the role of immigrant background and intergroup processes in explaining and limiting the phenomenon

Societies are becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse. This growing diversity offers new opportunities for both individuals and societies. At the same time, it also creates challenges such as a polarized political climate and an increase in hostile behaviour based on prejudice, such as ethnic discrimination and peer violence against immigrants. Recent research on the forms of bullying of minority groups by peers suggests that prejudice has some influence on specific patterns of bullying, but not enough attention has yet been given to this either in the conceptualization of bullying itself or in the design of intervention and prevention programs. It is therefore suggested that further research and the design of prevention programs could be targeted to give more attention to prejudice as one of the factors underlying this form of peer violence. The article is of a review nature and has been organized in a conceptual way, i.e. the focus is on prejudice-based bullying, which is the subject of research, but at the same time, arguments for the presented point of view will be presented to justify further empirical research in this problem area.