• The best and brightest can be religious fanatics

In Britain and Australia, several Muslim medical doctors and engineers have been arrested following a series of failed car bombings. The arrest of these well-educated professionals, together with the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri's role as Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, raises questions that go far beyond disaffection among Muslims and the consequences of America's misadventures in the Middle East.

The dangerous fanatics aren't just people living in poverty with nothing to lose.