The Making and Dealing With Jihadists

Bewildered by what fanatic Muslims do, some conclude that Muslims are brainwashed. Otherwise, how can their completely illogical belief system and barbaric behavior be explained? However, the notion of “brainwashing” that is bandied about is the stuff of science fiction and Hollywood movies such as the “Manchurian Candidate.”

The human arrives in this world with his brain already washed in the sense of being what 17th-century English political philosopher John Locke called ‘tabula rasa,’ a clean slate—ready for experience to imprint its script on it. John Locke was only partly correct. The brain also arrives with numerous predispositions already in place. A combination of life’s influences and a person’s decisions determines which dispositions develop and which ones fail. It is through this process that a unique human being is formed.

Many animals have already implemented programs that automatically run much of their lives. Bird migration, mating courtship, and thousands of other complex behaviors are examples of this specific programming. A catchphrase for this type of behavior is “instinct.” Generally, the higher the organism, the less rigid its preprogrammed behaviors are, and the greater its latitude for exercising choices.

Making choices depends on what to choose from and to what extent a given choice appeals to an individual.

The human newborn enters the arena of life without the means to be anything other than a passive recipient of things already chosen for him or her.

It is like the old joke by Henry Ford, who reportedly told his customers that they could choose the color of their car as long as it was black. Things are almost as bleak for the new arrival. He doesn’t have a say in choosing his parents, his socio-economic conditions, his environment of birth, or much else. All of this is already in place, and he is to start life from the context of his birth.

The development of a newborn in any family is influenced by many factors, among them how hands-on the parents are, how religious they are, and how severely they micromanage him to make him a good person and a better one than they are themselves.

Parents tend to live vicariously through their children by programming them as best they can so that the children become or achieve much of what they had failed to become or accomplish. This attitude covers all areas of life, such as giving the child the education they didn’t have, helping him achieve fame and fortune, nurturing him to become a top-notch athlete, and so forth.

Early influences play a crucial role in shaping a person. For this reason, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are born into Muslim families, Catholics into Catholic families, Hindus into Hindu families, and so on. The degree of religiosity ranges from mild to intense, with most people falling between the extremes.

Interestingly, two siblings raised by the same parents under the same influences may end up at opposite extremes in their religious views and practices. Here, the human dynamic of freedom of choice comes into play, steering one to one extreme and the other to the opposite. Occasional extreme deviations notwithstanding, most siblings in a given family have various degrees of that family’s overall religious and different values. The same principle of subscribing to a set of shared values exists in all human groupings, sometimes with broad flexibility and inclusiveness, while in other cases, with rigidity and exclusivity.

To enjoy the privileges of belonging to a group, one must also pay the membership dues.

The very young human faces a bewildering array of mysteries, challenges, and enticements, beginning from the minute they can make some sense of the world. Questions at every step, fears, and hopes are entangled with the need to survive and possibly thrive.

Who am I? What is this world all about? What’s the purpose? What am I supposed to do, and how? Where am I headed? People die. Where do they go? And on and on and on. The information booths available at the Fairground of Life provide him with answers that may help relieve his innate existential anxiety. It is here that religion plays a critical role and holds great appeal. Religion offers a good person and a surefire answer to those willing to take it on faith.

Islam is a powerful magnet for the masses who are unable to deal with the uncertainties of life and death on their own. It is from this population, many of whom are already thoroughly indoctrinated from birth, that the majority of diehard jihadists emerge.

It is the bargain that the jihadist makes. He surrenders totally to the religion of surrender in exchange for blanket security. Islam gives him all the answers he truly seeks for dealing with this world and promises him a lush and eternal paradise of Allah once he leaves it. Leaving this world in perfect submission as the foot soldier of paradise’s creator grants the faithful unimaginably glorious eternal rewards in their next life. It’s a bargain that some buy in whole, some in part, while some refuse and seek other means of addressing their questions and the unrelenting existential anxiety.

The great majority of jihadists emanate from the ranks of those born into the religion of Islam simply because they are the ones who are most thoroughly indoctrinated and influenced by Islamic dogma in their most receptive early years. Yet, others embrace Islam in adulthood on their own and enlist themselves as devoted jihadists for the same rewards that Islam offers them.

Islam has the great advantage of having the first call on new arrivals. It is an omnipresent system with masses of believers, mosques, madrasahs, and a host of other social and economic organizations that overpower individuals and steer them into the same fold; it is a sea of people who seem to know what they are all about, what life and death entail, and what one must also do.

Within this sea of surging humanity, composed of some 1.5 billion Muslims, each believer—a drop—ends up in one of its many waves through a combination of choice and forces beyond his control. The jihadist wave is beautiful to the deeply indoctrinated and poorly adjusted to dealing rationally and independently with life. Here, he finds the ironclad perfect solution to his anxieties and perplexities.

To a jihadist, death is nothing more than casting off a shell of the worthless earthly existence and donning the suit for winging joyously to the life of bliss promised by none other than Allah’s beloved final emissary, Muhammad.

Eradication of jihadism is a daunting task since Islam is genuinely a virulent, persistent pandemic disease. Massive education efforts, combined with the resolute confrontation of all sources and people that support and promote this deadly philosophy, hold the best promise of dealing effectively with this affliction of humanity.

In addition to family, places such as mosques and madrasahs, Islamic associations and charitable organizations, prisons, and similar institutions are incubators of jihadists. Massive efforts are required, on the one hand, to drain the breeding swamps of the Islamic virus while, on the other hand, helping Muslims adopt an alternative perspective on life that addresses their perplexities and offers a degree of comfort that religions provide without pitting one segment of humanity against another.

In conclusion: Folks, get off your duff. Stop saying, “Let the FBI do it.” Neither the FBI nor the NSA nor DHS can do it alone. This is a battle for survival that each one of us can help wage. Let’s get on with it before it’s too late. If not you, then your children and grandchildren will end up under the barbaric rule of the Jihadists.

This column was first published in 2010.

©2024 Amil Imani. All rights reserved.

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