I have long struggled to understand how intelligent, well-educated liberals fail to recognize the unique dangers posed by Islamism. Elsewhere, I’ve argued that such people often don’t grasp what it means to genuinely believe in God or paradise and therefore assume that no one else truly does. At best, they believe that such convictions couldn’t possibly be the primary motivation behind the kinds of violent actions we’ve seen from Islamist movements in recent decades.

For instance, I stumbled upon anthropologist Scott Atran delivering an online lecture from 2013 on the origins of jihadist terrorism. According to Atran, those who decapitate journalists, filmmakers, and aid workers to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” or detonate themselves in crowds of innocents are not driven by deeply held beliefs about jihad or martyrdom. Instead, Atran argued, these behaviors arise from toxic male bonding in soccer clubs and barbershops within the broader Arab-Muslim world. When asked by an attendee, “Are you saying that no Muslim suicide bomber has ever blown himself up expecting to get into paradise?” Atran replied, “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. No one believes in paradise.”

It’s worth noting that Atran is no fringe figure. He’s the emeritus director of research in anthropology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, and author of several well-regarded books. Yet his assertion – that no one believes in paradise – is so detached from what can be reasonably inferred from the statements and actions of jihadists that it borders on the absurd. In fact, the idea that no one believes in paradise is far more irrational than any belief in paradise itself.