Pathways to Jihadi Terrorism
Dr. Babu Suseelan
Jihadi terrorism is as old as Islam. Jihad war, death and destruction have
followed in the wake of Islam for hundreds of years. Ancient Egypt, Greece, Spain,
Persia, India and several societies have experienced the deadly Islamic conquest.
Now Jihadi terrorism has propelled to dangerous proportions and is a major threat
to public health and world peace. Jihadi terrorists are said to have the unique
ability to perpetuate their deadly terrorism wreaking havoc in every city in the
world. It’s destructive impact on the economy, public health and public
safety is widespread, and on the increase.
Sensational Jihadi terrorism, mass riots, violence, beheading, suicide bombing
and plane hijacking are under constant media scrutiny. Jihadi terrorism is also
a compelling subject for terrorism scholars, social scientists and security planners.
Nevertheless, agreement on the important underlying causes has been elusive and
inconsistent. Liberal left wing social scientists attribute Jihadi terrorism as
a product of “labeling” and social causes including economic deprivation
and interference of non-Islamic countries. They romanticize Jihadi terrorists
as involved in protest against social injustice. In their eagerness to promote
the irrational doctrine of “political correctness”, left wing armchair
speculators see Jihadi terrorists as victims of reactionary, reductionist “conspiracy
theories” that make the terrorists the real victim of unjust society. For
phony, left wing, liberal social scientists, suicide bombing, mass murder, riots,
arson and public beheading of non-Muslims by Jihadi terrorists are negotiated
product of formal responses to political injustices.
Numerous empirical evidence and case study analysis of Muslim terrorists proves
the unbalance of this equation. Such malicious “politically correct”
statement is misleading and mischievous. The unified left wing explanation of
Jihadi terrorism as a social phenomenon in the changing political, economic context
is false and falls far short of explaining reliable and stable psychological and
religious variables influencing Islamic terrorism.
In recent years, studies of risk prediction and identification of both static
and dynamic factors associated with Jihadi terrorism have provided a clear understanding
of the problem. Empirically based investigations of psychological factors on Jihadi
terrorists have indicated important cognitive and behavioral variables acting
as pathways for Jihadi terrorism. Focused studies have revealed unusual ways of
Jihadi’s thinking, asocial attitudes, cruelty, and indifference to the feelings
of victims, paranoia and aggressive hostility.
ISLAMIC THINKING ERRORS
Religious, psychological, educational, and historical factors are implicated
in Jihadi terrorism. Static variables (age, ethnic religious background) and dynamic
variables (cognitive distortions, thinking errors, negative emotions, maladaptive
behaviors, deviance amplifying community networks) also specifically lend itself
to the identification of dynamic risk factors of Jihadi terrorism.
Muslims think Islam is a perfect and perfected religion. It has perfect answers
for science, politics, government, economics, psychosocial problems and human
life. As far as the doctrinal tenets are concerned, Islam maintains that Muslims
must unquestionably follow the tenets. Muslims should shun everything that is
opposed to Islam. Muslims consider Koran, Hadith and sura, which are called “Nusoos-e-Qatiyah”,
are perfect and have no place for criticism.
Muslims are indoctrinated at an early age into the rigid, closed, reductionaist
Islamic dogma, demanding full faith and devotion and separation from all competing
philosophies. They are kept ignorant of the world and other rational thought systems.
Islamic schools focus on rote memorization of Koran and discourage critical thinking.
Islam regards thinking as a part of worship. Questioning Islamic concepts is the
biggest crime, punishable by death.
From the beginning, Islamic education starts formulating a conceptualization,
which logically connects automatic Islamic thoughts and beliefs. The education
system fails to see the larger picture and jump from one core belief to another.
It provides a cognitive map that is limited, hostile and untrue. The faulty cognitive
map generally resonates with the students for life. These rigid Islamic cognitive
schemas have a profound impact on their thinking, feeling and behavior. Muslims
have a common narrative history, cognitive schemas, social scripts, and kind of
desire, attitude and cultural values. The whole thought system lacks critical
thinking, rational analysis and personal responsibility, and Muslims are just
content to stay the same and blame every one but themselves for their thinking
errors. For their failings and shortcomings, Muslims hide behind alibi and denial.
Everything happens is “Allah’s Will” and “non-believers
will burn in Islamic hell fire”. Such automatic expressions influence their
subsequent emotion, behavior and response. Since their automatic response is based
on their pre-conceived Islamic thought, they often misconstrue neutral situations
to fit their closed model thinking. Thus, Muslim’s automatic thoughts are
with full of thinking errors and biased.
Since Islam is a closed dogma and Muslims are forbidden to test its validity or
utility, and required to maintain the equilibrium at any cost, Muslim’s
thinking errors are overwhelming. Dysfunctional automatic thoughts coexist with
various thinking errors in Islam. Typical Islamic thinking errors include:
- Polarized or all-or-nothing-thinking (e.g.: believers and non-believers, daru-ul-Islam,
dar-ul-harb)
- Catastrophic Thinking (all infidels will go to hell)
- Discounting the positive, accentuate the negative (all kafirs are trying to
get Muslims)
- Emotional reasoning (emotional justification for bombing, beheading, terrorism)
- Labeling (put a global label on non-believers as kafirs)
- Minimization (blame the victim, denial, alibi)
- Mind Reading (Muslims know what non-Muslims are thinking)
- Mental Filter (Failure to see things wholistically)
- Over Generalization (making sweeping negative conclusions, Jews are pigs,
Christians are rats)
- Personalization (Muslims believe Kafirs are behaving negatively because of
Islam)
- Tunnel Vision (only see things the Islamic way)
Muslims erroneously think Islamic absolutist paradigm is designed to be adaptable
to existing, new and future applications for all the time. It restricts Muslims
to seek viable solutions to life’s problems. They refuse to reform or incorporate
critical elements with Islamic thinking as a means to achieve a better society
by utilizing new concepts to reach a more accurate assessment to produce more
accurate judgments. Out of box thinking, logical reasoning, higher order thinking,
and scientific thinking are really not intellectual pursuits of Muslims.
DISTURBED JIHADI MIND
As a result, their interpretation of neutral events, problem solving strategies,
emotional reactions, interpersonal communication and attitude towards non-Muslims
are full of thinking errors, automatic thoughts and negative behaviors. Consciously
or unconsciously, Jihadi Muslims react to upsetting events, rejection, failure,
and criticism in extreme negative Islamic terms. They may spontaneously respond
without critical evaluation with extreme, angry outbursts. Instead of developing
a more adaptive response, Jihadi Muslims accept automatic, pre cooked responses
couched in Islamic jargon as correct and feel proud of it. Islamic automatic thoughts
are predictable since its underlying beliefs are in the closed, rigid Islamic
dogma. Such automatic response and ready-made solutions from Koranic concepts
complicate issues, and interfere with their ability to reach positive goals. These
dysfunctional, automatic thoughts and negative mal adaptive behaviors are logically
connected to the content of the defective automatic thoughts. It leads to intermittent
explosive disorder including violence, riots, suicide bombing and terrorism. For
Jihadi Muslims, such distorted thoughts and violent behavior has their own validity
and utility.
The consequences are decidedly disastrous and miserable for the victims. The interaction
of Islamic dogmatism, early indoctrination, rote memorization, deviant amplifying
community psychodynamics, and cognitive processes enable Muslims to the maintenance
of closed thinking, negative emotions and explosive behaviors. Strict Islamic
regulatory guidelines also act as catalysts for developing authoritarian/conservative
personality traits including conservatism, aggression, toughness, projectivity,
stereotyping, destruction, hostility and anger. Such aggressive, conservative
personality traits are maintained in all Jihadi Muslims by militant Islamic religious
and social networks.
Research studies have revealed that individuals who are committed to dogmatic
Islamic belief system suffer from reasoning deficiencies, thinking errors and
are likely to join terrorists groups as an expression of their conservative/authoritarian
outlook. There is also evidence that socioeconomic factors, and educational level
are not a determinant of Jihadi terrorism. Do Jihadi Muslims who share dogmatic
Islamic beliefs, and membership in terrorism groups are more emotionally disturbed?
By every measure available to researchers, absolutist, dogmatic, rigid beliefs
negatively influence ethical judgment, and precipitate emotional disturbances.
DEVIANCE AMPLIFYING ISLAMIC NETWORKS
In Islamic culture, the common emotional impulses of Muslims are shaped through
Islamic education, and through shared experiences in the Islamic social groups.
Islamic cultural institutions, religious organizations and the state have ways
of controlling thinking and social expression. The dogmatic Islamic ideology,
and the strict enforcement of religious practices to maintain the closed system,
and rote memorization of Koran solidify dysfunctional cognitive schemas. Defective
cognitive schemas, culture and conservative personality continuously interact,
in mutually supporting and shaping explosive behaviors.
Jihadi Muslims seldom recognize the existence or inappropriateness of their thinking
errors, negative emotions or refrain from misinterpretation of the situation or
violent outbursts. In discussion or negotiation sessions, Jihadis often mix-up
feelings and thoughts and mislabel feelings as thoughts. The connection among
their irrational thoughts, negative emotion and outrageous behavior is always
justified in the name of Allah.
PREVENTING JIHADI VIOLENCE
To develop and implement an effective model to prevent Jihadi violence and
terrorism, it is important to focus on the cognitive and behavioral variables
acting as pathways for Jihadi terrorism. Empirically based investigations of psychological
factors of Jihadi terrorism have been helpful in identifying risk factors, thinking
errors, and criminogenic needs of Jihadi terrorists. These risk factors, and the
deadly Islamic ideology, which transforms Muslims into terrorists and suicide
bombers should be part of any effective harm reduction and terrorism prevention
policy and plan. Prevention strategies must include effective cognitive restructuring
methods to address the impact of early learning processes and its influence in
shaping negative emotions and deviant behaviors.
Democratic nations must exert pressure on Islamic countries to reform their education
system. Education in Islamic countries is not conducive for raising the level
of rational thinking, or to help students in thinking differently, and expand
scientific knowledge and insight. It is necessary to compel Islamic educational
institutions to modify the system to minimize those factors, which enhance destructive
beliefs and thinking errors. Effective educational reform must include restructuring
school curriculum, and revising training curriculum for teachers. Islamic education
reform can modify negative thinking process and possibly ameliorate some of the
violent behavior including Jihadi terrorism. Revision of Islamic education should
come from outside of Jihadi groups. Islamic countries must be forced to break
the wall of denial and commit themselves to the difficult process of change. As
part of the pressure, liberal democratic nations must enforce effective psycholinguistic,
cognitive/behavior restructuring, and thinking for a change programs to modify
Muslim’s sense of righteousness and their simplistic all or nothing mentality
that causes them to wage war against infidels.
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