White paper on the Jemaah Islamiah arrests:

"The psychologists concluded that many JI members turned to leaders like Ibrahim Maidin as they wanted a ''no fuss'' path to heaven. They wanted to be convinced that in JI they had found ''true Islam'' and free (sic) themselves from endless searching as they found it stressful to be critical, evaluative and rational. They believed they could not go wrong, as the JI leaders had quoted from holy texts. The psychological profile of the JI members (e.g. high compliance, low assertiveness, low in the questioning of religious values, and high levels of guilt and loneliness) suggested that the group of JI members was psychologically predisposed to indoctrination and control by the JI leaders and needed a sense of belonging."

Err, this applies to more people than JI lor.


Also:

"Independent teams of psychologists have interviewed the 31 detainees. All except two were assessed to have average or above average intelligence. About one-third had intelligence above the population norm, including two with superior level intelligence... These men were not ignorant, destitute or disenfranchised outcasts. All 31 had received secular education"