The fact that terrorist groups have demonstrable short-term goals does not in the least suggest that they are not primarily motivated by their religious dogmas.

This could not be further from the truth.

These individuals live in communities which define themselves in religious terms. Suicide bombing, in the Muslim world at least, is an explicitly religious phenomenon that is inextricable from notions of martyrdom and jihad, predictable on the basis of these notions, and thus sanctified by their logic. It is no more secular an activity than prayer is.

Except for the fact that there are Christian suicide bombers in what you describe as "the Muslim world", fighting against the same people the Muslims are fighting against. And most Tamil Tigers are not Muslim. Tamils are an ethnic group who want to establish an independent state in what is now Sri Lanka.

"The Black Tigers (Tamil) are believed to be the most effective unit of its kind in the world, as the rest of the LTTE it is also secular, not driven by religious fanaticism. The creation of the Black Tigers is based on the LTTE's studies of Asymmetric warfare; thus using suicide cadres balance the government's greater resources."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTTE_Black_Tiger

Here is the story I saw about the suicide bombing in China...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-06-china-blast_x.htm?csp=34