I enjoy reading evolutionary psychology, but a few of these politically-incorrect "truths" seem pretty flimsy to me. (As does most psychology.) For example:
4. Most suicide bombers are MuslimSuicide missions are not always religiously motivated, but according to Oxford University sociologist Diego Gambetta, editor of Making Sense of Suicide Missions, when religion is involved, the attackers are always Muslim. Why? The surprising answer is that Muslim suicide bombing has nothing to do with Islam or the Quran (except for two lines). It has a lot to do with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.
What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.
I think the gender disparity in Muslim countries has far more to do with violence than does the relatively rare case of Muslim polygamy. Besides, it is increasingly apparent than many terrorists are wealthy, highly-educated people with plenty of mating prospects, which means that perhaps Islam as a religion is a factor....
As with most psychology, there's a lot of hand waving and theorizing without any experimentation or proof.
(HT: Marginal Revolution.)
Jamie Glazov's "hypermasculinity" model seems stronger, but there's little doubt that the Islamic attitude toward women -- dangerous creatures who must be subordinated and kept away from men -- has a lot to do with Muslims' well-documented tendencies toward violence. Nothing defuses men's aggressions like the companionship and moderation of women. Indeed, if there were no women -- if men somehow reproduced men without the need for a second sex -- we'd probably never have reached our present level of civilization.
Think "Lysistrata."
francis: that's interesting, do you have references to documents linking muslims and violence?
FWP: I wasn't questioning the link between violence and lack of access to women, but I think gender selection (via abortion and infanticide) is a great contributing factor than polygamy.
jez: Why are documents superior to the constant news accounts of Muslims vs. everyone else in places from Iraq, to Afghanistan, to London, to New York, to Indonesia, to Bali, to India, to Pakistan, to Sudan, to Israel, to Lebanon, to Madrid, to Kenya, to Tanzania, to Chechnya, to Bosnia.... There are plenty of documents out there, but are they really necessary?