Research by agencies in the West and the Middle East has revealed the enormous range of factors involved -- from a distant relationship with father to a failure to find a job that matches often relatively high educational achievement, from a predisposition to violence to a search for company and belonging.
Research has also focused on the impact of exposure to images of conflict in the Muslim world, via TV and the Internet, and on the crucial role that group dynamics can play in reinforcing extremism. Poverty does not seem a factor.
"Most are middle-class, some come from very rich, and a very few from poor, backgrounds," al-Hadlaq said. "In Saudi Arabia, they come from all over."



