This paper examines the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks through a sociological lens, applying Émile Durkheim's social theory of suicide to explain the behavior of the hijackers and suicide commandos involved. After providing background on the World Trade Center attacks and surveying media interpretations — including religious fanaticism, psychological illness, and cultural conflict — the paper argues that the bombers were products of collective social forces rather than purely individual pathology. Drawing on Durkheim's concept that society shapes individual desire, values, and behavior, the paper contends that cultural clashes, religious doctrine, and group identity collectively motivated the attackers, situating the events of 9/11 within a broader sociological framework rather than reducing them to acts of terrorism alone.
Societies form individuals, and social orders of different kinds produce different kinds of people. This paper revolves around the following central thesis: an individual is the product of his or her own society. Therefore, those who take extreme measures to become what their society expects of them, and those who strive to cooperate with certain groups even at the cost of their own lives, do so as a result of the social and external forces at work. Both social and political elements — primarily cultural components — play a pivotal role in forming various groups, including the prime example of terrorist organizations and suicide commandos, among them those responsible for the attacks that caused the World Trade Center towers to collapse.
The following sections of this research paper will first provide essential background information on the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The paper will then examine the distinct perspectives that the media put forward regarding this historic and tragic event. Finally, the paper will apply the social theory of suicide advanced by one of sociology's most eminent theorists, Émile Durkheim, to the terrorist attacks of September 11. A sociological and theoretical analysis of the event will offer deeper insight into a perspective that has often been neglected in public discourse.
According to C. Wright Mills, "before you are through with any piece of work, no matter how indirectly on occasion, orient it to the central and continuing task of understanding the structure and the drift, the shaping and the meanings, of your own period, the terrible and magnificent world of human society" (Social Problems). For this reason, before examining the root causes of suicide bombing and terrorist attacks, it is necessary to establish what happened on September 11, 2001.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the world witnessed one of the most appalling and brutal acts of violence in modern history: the deaths of thousands of innocent people and the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, as Boeing 757s and 767s "slammed into two prominent icons of information and commodification" (Arthur & Kroker). The irreparable loss has been summarized as follows: "Thousands die, billions are lost, fear reigns, and market society, which requires a socio-political backbone of stability and predictability, loses its patina of magic. No faith in 'human capital' or a commodity-based social logic could mediate such transgressive violence of 911" (Arthur & Kroker).
The September 11 attacks occurred because a small group of individuals decided to take their own lives and the lives of others in the name of their religion, leaving the American public and the wider world with countless unanswered questions. Who were these suicide commandos? Why the World Trade Center? Why America? What was the intended target, and what was the purpose? Many wondered where the ensuing war on terrorism might lead the nation and the world (Achenbach, p. W17). With time, and with the assistance of the media, the public came to learn a great deal about who was involved and why.
With skyscrapers collapsing before a global audience, the media produced extensive coverage while presenting a range of viewpoints and uncovering possible motives behind the attacks. Many commentators shared the view that the events were connected to a struggle for "viral power" (Arthur & Kroker). However, the majority of experts, scholars, social scientists, and politicians characterized the attacks as acts of religious fanaticism. Medical professionals, psychologists, and psychiatrists suggested that the motivation behind such extreme self-sacrifice could be rooted in psychological illness combined with an obsessive commitment to religious belief. Eventually, the media identified Al-Qaeda as the organization behind the operation, describing it as an international terrorist network.
The September 11 attacks were widely perceived by Americans as an unparalleled tragedy brought about by Muslim hatred toward Western culture, religion, and power (Islam & Terror). This perception, however, stands in tension with the fact that the Quran and the broader tradition of Islamic scholarship present Islam as a fundamentally peace-loving and pragmatic religion — a point underscored by many Muslim leaders through their teachings and conduct.
Whatever the media's interpretation of this tragic event, it remains necessary, as Wright Mills argued, to understand personal troubles in terms of public issues and the problems of history. Mills wrote: "Know that many personal troubles cannot be solved merely as troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues — and in terms of the problems of history-making. Know that the human meaning of public issues must be revealed by relating them to personal troubles — and to the problems of the individual life. Know that the problems of social science, when adequately formulated, must include both troubles and issues, both biography and history, and the range of their intricate relations. Within that range the life of the individual and the making of societies occur; and within that range the sociological imagination has its chance to make a difference in the quality of human life in our time" (Social Problems). With this framework in mind, the next section presents a theoretical analysis of the September 11 attacks through the lens of Durkheim's social theory.
The world can be understood and observed from many different angles and perspectives, and there are several ways to analyze both the individual and society. Prominent social theorists — including Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Sigmund Freud, W.E.B. Du Bois, Walter Benjamin, Antonio Gramsci, and Charles Lemert — have each contributed frameworks for this analysis. This paper draws on the social theory of Émile Durkheim to review the September 11 attacks from a sociological standpoint.
The attacks of September 11 have been largely labeled as acts of terrorism and violence. Much has been said about the gravity of these acts and how the perpetrators should be punished. However, relatively little attention has been paid to those individuals who deliberately surrendered their own lives. Analyzing these groups through the lens of Durkheim reveals that all individuals — including those who carry out acts of self-destruction — are products of the culture, society, and civilization in which they are formed.
Examining the men who killed themselves while bringing down the Twin Towers makes clear that individual psychology alone cannot account for such a coordinated and fatal operation. There is an unmistakable element of collective effort in such historical events. Émile Durkheim, the French sociologist, maintained that it is fundamentally "the collective social forces" (Dhossche) — rather than individual factors alone — that are responsible for acts of suicide. Applying this concept to the events of September 11, it becomes clear that the collapse of the World Trade Center was the result of a collective effort by many individuals working in concert. These suicide commandos were, in many respects, ordinary human beings.
"Durkheim's collective social forces applied to the hijackers"
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