Suicide attacks are not new. There are strategic and psychological reasons for this method, which is also used by secular terror organizations. The last fifteen years have seen the unprecedented world-wide rise of a 'brand' of suicide terrorist who gives religion as his motivation. Religion can offer various rewards to an attacker, and in the history of Turkey opponents from the West and Middle East have used religion to motivate their combatants. A progression can be seen in al-Qaeda's interpretation of Islam. These views do not represent Islam. Again, Turkey's experience is important: The Ottoman State based itself on Sharia Law, but interpreted Koran and Hadiths in a very different way, and religious tolerance was the norm. Muslims object when Westerners associate Islam with terror. Government institutions like the CIA may fail to understand the distinctions and take actions which are rightly condemned as racist. So how are suicide attacks to be stopped? The intelligence community should be more aware of the religious issues. In order to gain more information, some civil liberties may have to be set aside, especially in the area of non-intrusive intelligence-gathering. In order to undermine religious motivations, governments should engage more positively in the inner-Islamic debate.