Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bin Laden’S Formation Of The Self: A Comparative Analysis, Robyn Torok

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

Following the 9/11 and similar al-Qaeda attacks, one of the principle questions we ask as a Western Society is why? Researchers on religious terrorism generally agree that psychopathic labelling and descriptions are both unhelpful and inaccurate. Instead what is needed is a look at the broader sociological context. As a result, this paper utilises Foucault’s technologies of the self (formation of the self) as a framework to explore the self transformations and teleology of Osama bin Laden’s actions based on a comparative analysis with the biblical character of Moses. This analysis will include a number of important parallels which include: …