Mohamed Atta was one of the ringleaders involved in the September 11th terrorists attacks on New York. Atta served as one of the hijacker-pilots who flew one of the planes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Atta is originally from Egypt and came to America in 2000 and enrolled with another one of the hijackers in Huffman Aviation in Venice Florida. Here they entered an accelerated program dealing with training to be a pilot and flying planes. Atta during this time met with other terrorists and discussed the final logistics of their plot which would eventually be carried out. On September 11, 2001, Atta took control of American Airlines Flight 11 and crashed the plane into the North Tower.
Mohamed Atta was motivated by his own idealistic views about bettering the world. The price paid by the American citizens was devastating. However, we must also examine the motivations he had behind this plot and what was important enough to him that he would give up his life for a certain cause. To find out more about idealism and people like Atta, register for Psychology of Evil.
Psychology of Evil (UMD course code PSYC289E) is an I-Series course offered by the Psychology department at the University of Maryland, College Park. It explores why humans commit evil, why others allow evil to happen, and how ordinary humans may be made to commit evil. The course surveys a wide body of research in social and evolutionary psychology to answer this questions, and their corollary: how can people be driven to commit good?
If you’ve every watched a news story, or witnessed something firsthand, and wondered why, you should consider taking Psychology of Evil and finding out.
Psychology of Evil 