THE young man who recently blew himself up inside a mosque in Al-Ahsa killing several people, depicts the type of personality that extremists and those with deviant thoughts take advantage of. People like Abdulrahman Al-Tuwaijri are easy to manipulate, mold and even motivate to engage in hostile and subversive acts. Psychiatrist Dr. Muhammad Al-Ghamdi said the above characteristics fit well with Al-Tuwaijri's psychopathic personality. Al-Ghamdi said terrorists who blow themselves up are nothing but psychopaths, persons with mental illnesses that make them act criminally and violently. "They are mysterious and cannot tell the good actions from the bad ones. Most of them are young and can easily be influenced by others and even follow orders blindly," he said. Environment, education level and social status can all be determining factors when it comes to analyzing any personality. In Al-Tuwaijri's case, Al-Ghamdi said there seemed to be other factors that led him to join an extremist group and carry out a terrorist operation that killed innocent people. "Looking at his facial features, I can confidently say he was ferocious and mysterious. His personality can be shaken easily. Such personalities are fragile and complicated and believe they are always right and will never accept criticism," he said. Psychopaths are not only hostile and destructive but also capable of making a bloodbath, he said, especially if they are made to believe what they are doing is right. A personality can be defined as a set of relatively fixed ways of behaving and qualities that make a person different from others. But personalities can be influenced by internal and external factors and stimulants. "Al-Tuwaijri, at 22, was quite young. He was immature and inexperienced; he did not have the capability to analyze things around him and determine what was right and wrong. All these factors are used well by terrorist groups and this is how they recruit young men," said Al-Ghamdi. The groups instill deviant ideologies in the minds of young recruits and then use them as tools to achieve their sought-after goals, he said, adding that they followed the same rules with Al-Tuwaijri, and hammered violent ideas into his mind until he became a puppet in their hands. He was ready to achieve their goals without thinking whether they were logical or not. Al-Ghamdi called upon families to follow moderate Islamic values to raise their children and focus on knowledge and the importance of building a strong society based on values such as social justice, equality and non-discrimination. "Parents should always remember that children and young people could be easily influenced by deviant thoughts because they are gullible and inexperienced," said Al-Ghamdi.
