Nicolai Sennels: Psychology: Why Islam creates monsters
Psychopathic
people and behaviour are found within all cultures and religions. But
one tops them all -- by many lengths. The daily mass killings, terror,
persecutions and family executions committed by the followers of Islam
are nauseating, and the ingenuity behind the attacks -- always looking
for new and more effective ways of killing and terrorising people -- is
astonishing: hijacking jumbo jets and flying them into skyscrapers,
hunting unarmed and innocent people with grenades and automatic rifles
in shopping malls, planting bombs in one's own body, using model
airplanes as drones, attaching large rotating blades to pickup trucks
and using them as human lawn movers, killing family members with acid or
fire, hanging people publicly from cranes in front of cheering crowds,
etc. It makes one ask oneself: what creates such lack of empathy and
almost playful and creative attitude towards murdering perceived
enemies?
This is a question for psychologists like me.
Studying the Muslim mind
Nobody
is born a mass murderer, a rapist or a violent criminal. So what is it
in the Muslim culture that influence their children in a way that make
so relatively many Muslims harm other people?
As
a psychologist in a Danish youth prison, I had a unique chance to study
the mentality of Muslims. 70 percent of youth offenders in Denmark have
a Muslim background. I was able to compare them with non-Muslim clients
from the same age group with more or less the same social background. I
came to the conclusion that Islam and Muslim culture have certain
psychological mechanisms that harm people's development and increase
criminal behaviour.
I
am, of course, aware that Muslims are different, and not all Muslims
follow the Quran's violent and perverted message and their prophet's
equally embarrassing example. But as with all other religions, Islam
also influences its followers and the culture they live in.
One
could talk about two groups of psychological mechanisms, that both
singly and combined increase violent behaviour. One group is mainly
connected with religion, which aims at indoctrinating Islamic values in
children as early as possible and with whatever means necessary,
including violence and intimidation. One can understand a Muslim
parent's concern about his offspring's religious choices, because the
sharia orders the death penalty for their children, should they pick
another religion than their parents. The other group of mechanisms are
more cultural and psychological. These cultural psychological mechanisms
are a natural consequence of being influenced by a religion like Islam
and stemming from a 1,400 year old tribal society with very limited
freedom to develop beyond what the religion allows.
Classical brainwashing methods in the upbringing
Brainwashing
people into believing or doing things against their own human nature --
such as hating or even killing innocents they do not even know -- is
traditionally done by combining two things: pain and repetition. The
conscious infliction of psychological and physical suffering breaks down
the person's resistance to the constantly repeated message.
Totalitarian
regimes use this method to reform political dissidents. Armies in less
civilized countries use it to create ruthless soldiers, and religious
sects all over the world use it to fanaticize their followers.
During
numerous sessions with more than a hundred Muslim clients, I found that
violence and repetition of religious messages are prevalent in Muslim
families.
Muslim
culture simply does not have the same degree of understanding of human
development as in civilized societies, and physical pain and threats are
therefore often the preferred tool to raise children. This is why so
many Muslim girls grow up to accept violence in their marriage, and why
Muslim boys grow up to learn that violence is acceptable. And it is the
main reason why nine out of ten children removed from their parents by
authorities in Copenhagen are from immigrant families. The Muslim
tradition of using pain and intimidation as part of disciplining
children are also widely used in Muslim schools -- also in the West.
Combined
with countless repetitions of Quranic verses in Islamic schools and
families, all this makes it very difficult for children to defend
themselves against being indoctrinated to follow the Quran, even if it
is against secular laws, logic, and the most basic understanding of
compassion.
And
as we know from so many psychological studies, whatever a child is
strongly influenced by at that age takes an enormous personal effort to
change later in life. It is no wonder that Muslims in general, in spite
of Islam's inhumane nature and obvious inability to equip its followers
with humor, compassion and other attractive qualities, are stronger in
their faith than any other religious group.
Four enabling psychological factors
Not
only does a traditional Islamic upbringing resemble classical
brainwashing methods, but also, the culture it generates cultivates four
psychological characteristics that further enable and increase violent
behaviour.
These four mental factors are anger, self-confidence, responsibility for oneself and intolerance.
When
it comes to anger, Western societies widely agree that it is a sign of
weakness. Uncontrolled explosions of this unpleasant feeling are maybe
the fastest way of losing face, especially in Northern countries, and
though angry people may be feared, they are never respected. In Muslim
culture, anger is much more accepted, and being able to intimidate
people is seen as strength and source of social status. We even see
ethnic Muslim groups or countries proudly declare whole days of anger,
and use expressions such as "holy anger" -- a term that seems
contradictory in peaceful cultures.
In
Western societies, the ability to handle criticism constructively if it
is justified, and with a shrug if it is misguided, is seen as an
expression of self-confidence and authenticity. As everyone has noticed,
this is not the case among Muslims. Here criticism, no matter how true,
is seen as an attack on one's honor, and it is expected that the honor
is restored by using whatever means necessary to silence the opponent.
Muslims almost never attempt to counter criticism with logical
arguments; instead, they try to silence the criticism by pretending to
offended or by name-calling, or by threatening or even killing the
messenger.
The
third psychological factor concerns responsibility for oneself, and
here the psychological phenomenon "locus of control" plays a major role.
People raised by Western standards generally have an inner locus of
control, meaning that they experience their lives as governed by inner
factors, such as one's own choices, world view, ways of handling
emotions and situation, etc. Muslims are raised to experience their
lives as being controlled from the outside. Everything happens "insha'
Allah" -- if Allah wills -- and the many religious laws, traditions and
powerful male authorities leave little room for individual
responsibility. This is the cause for the embarrassing and world-famous
Muslim victim mentality, where everybody else is blamed and to be
punished for the Muslims' own self-created situation.
Finally,
the fourth psychological factor making Muslims vulnerable to the
violent message in the Quran concerns tolerance. While Western societies
in general define a good person as being open and tolerant, Muslims are
told that they are superior to non-Muslims, destined to dominate
non-Muslims, and that they must distance themselves socially and
emotionally from non-Muslims. The many hateful and dehumanising verses
in the Quran and the Hadiths against non-Muslims closely resemble the
psychological propaganda that leaders use against their own people in
order to prepare them mentally for fighting and killing the enemy.
Killing another person is easier if you hate him and do not perceive him
as fully human.
Why Islam creates monsters
The
cultural and psychological cocktail of anger, low self-esteem, victim
mentality, a willingness to be blindly guided by outer authorities, and
an aggressive and discriminatory view toward non-Muslims, forced upon
Muslims through pain, intimidation and mind-numbing repetitions of the
Quran's almost countless verses promoting hate and violence against
non-Muslims, is the reason why Islam creates monsters.
The psychological problem within Islam
The
problem with Islam and Muslim culture is that there are so many
psychological factors pushing its followers towards a violent attitude
against non-Muslims that a general violent clash is -- at least from a
psychological perspective -- inevitable. With such strong pressure and
such strong emotions within such a large group of people -- all pitched
against us -- we are facing the perfect storm, and I see no
possibilities of turning it around. For people to change, they have to
want it, to be allowed to change, and to be able to change -- and only a
tiny minority of Muslims have such lucky conditions.
Far
too many people underestimate the power of psychology embedded in
religion and culture. As we have already seen, no army of social
workers, generous welfare states, sweet-talking politicians, politically
correct journalists or democracy-promoting soldiers can stop these
enormous forces. Sensible laws on immigration and Islamisation in our
own countries can limit the amount of suffering, but based on my
education and professional experience as a psychologist for Muslims, I
estimate that we will not be able to deflect or avoid this many-sided,
aggressive movement against our culture.
I
do believe that we, as a democratic and educated society become focused
and organised concerning the preservation of our values and
constitutions, can win this ongoing conflict started by the often inbred
followers of sharia. The big question is how much of our dignity, our
civil rights, and our blood, sweat and tears will we lose in the
process.
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