The anatomy of propaganda within religious terrorism

Humanist, March-April, 2003 by Roderick Hindery

Terrorism promoted in the name of Islam, Irish Catholicism, or other religious and nonreligious political doctrines doesn't confine itself to suicidal explosions or the infliction of intolerable collateral homicides. At its nucleus terrorism is psychological as well as physical. It paralyzes minds and emotions as much as it explodes buildings, buses, or planes. From Dantesque depictions of eternal fire and torture to threats of holy destructions issued in the name of deities, terrorists commence with the indoctrination of their own agents. Meanwhile, they pursue the demoralization of further victims. Either as systematic mass suggestion (propaganda) or as the one-on-one manipulation of individuals (indoctrination), intimidation shuts out critical thought as well as emotional maturity.

While terrorism and propaganda are distinct ideas, they frequently overlap--such as when youth are deceived or frightened into sexual submission by religious opportunists and predators. Despicable as such physical molestation is, abuses of minds and hearts are equally appalling because their scale is more extensive than physical terror, and physical coercion is so often preceded by deception and emotional manipulation. As the physical manipulation of minors is preceded by lies and indoctrination, imminent social catastrophes can be better gauged and forecast by recognizing the anatomy of lies and manipulations within propaganda.

In my 2001 book Indoctrination and Self-deception or Free and Critical Thought? I identify several features of indoctrination and propaganda practiced by terrorists and others. Five of these elements are: unwarranted certitude, unmodified self-interest, deceptions by others, exploitations of emotions, and the impact of misled intellectuals. There are three preliminary strategies that seem especially prevalent within propagandas spread by terrorists: the use of repetitive formulas and self-hypnotic meditations, binary thinking, and a focus on youth. These characterize one-on-one indoctrination as well as large-scale social propaganda. Because they also function as barometers for measuring both physical and psychological terrorism, their composition needs to be examined more closely.

Repetitive Formulas and Self-hypnotic Meditations

A document found in a suitcase belonging to leading September 11, 2001, terrorist Muhammed Atta has been faulted for being insufficiently Muslim in tenor by Sunni (orthodox) Muslims who might not be comfortable with its mystical language. Sufi Muslim mystics, however, might accept the language because it reads like a set of rules for novices in Sufi asceticism. In any case, the "suitcase document" is remarkable for four reasons.

First, it embodies a classic ascetical strategy for applying formulaic principles to intended actions. Second, it shares much in common with repetitive techniques for self-hypnosis. Third, it bears a striking resemblance to mainstream traditions such as Catholicism in ascetical manuals like The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola or The Rule of St. Benedict that says, "keep death daily before one's eyes." Whether or not such manuals threaten human freedom depends, of course, on the various contexts in which they have been presented. If in the wrong hands they can function as formulas and meditations both for indoctrination and for fighting "holy" wars.

Fourth, the document from the suitcase directly connects religious formulas and meditations with intentions to perpetrate mass murder. Practical checklists of objectives, terrifying in magnitude, are interwoven with religious statements and then repeated and applied as mantras of self-indoctrination.

The "Suitcase Document," published in 2001 by the New York Times Company, paraphrases some of the formulas:

  Pray during the previous night. Remember God
   frequently and with complete serenity. Visualize
   how you will respond if you get into trouble.
   Read verses of the Quran into your hands and
   rub them over your luggage, knife, and all your
   papers. Check your weapons, perform ablution
   before you leave your apartment, and remember
   God constantly while riding to the airport. Take
   courage and remember the rewards which God
   has promised for the martyrs.

Binary Thinking

According to historian Richard J. Ellis, political and other cultural extremists often divide people into "the just and the hopelessly corrupt," "the righteous and the unrighteous," or what Fredric Jameson (one of the foremost contemporary Marxist literary critics) calls "the familiar self, as opposed to the alien self." This conspiratorial them-against-us mentality is in alignment with the simplistic thinking often attributed to the negative aspects of fundamentalism, which exist in many political and religious groups. Among many Muslim fundamentalists--such as Sayyid Qutb (author of Islam the Religion of the Future) and Sheikh Abdullah Azzam (Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentor)--Israel, the United States, and the West in general are perceived to be a single source of evil. In a similar vein, Safar al Hawali (dean of Islamic studies at Umm Al Qura University in Mecca) adds that the United States intends to destroy Islam. For the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (the former Iranian Shiite religious leader and politician) the world was either Muslim or non-Muslim, the latter equated with apostasy and death.