[bungula]

Here's an exceptionally good hypotheses explaining why western educated Muslims tend to be radicalists:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/18b/reason_as_memetic_immune_disorde...

[seldo]

I think it would be helpful to summarize:

"Western education forces lifelong Muslims to more thoroughly analyze their beliefs, which until that point they just accepted without questioning. They then go to one extreme or the other: either they reject those beliefs, or take them to their logical conclusion and decide to convert/kill infidels."

It's interesting, but it doesn't address why this would happen to engineers in particular, rather than just all western educated Muslims.

[pchristensen]

Presumably because engineers are trained to be analytical and to trust their analysis, so they are more likely to follow through on the outcome of their soul searching.