Paris Jihad: will of Allah or blasphemy?

It was in the 18^th century that the Enlightenment fractured the tectonic plate that underpins western civilisation and created a rift that has become a huge gap. Part of humanity moved out of the shadows. The rest stayed behind. Like all tectonic activity it will be a long time before the movement can be reversed. Many more dramatic upheavals and disruptions to our peaceful existence can be expected to occur over the coming years.

Though they appear to be inevitable, what can we do to attenuate their impact? Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution. That seems intelligent.

Perhaps the jihadists are not so much the problem as they are the wrong solution to a problem that is inherent to most modern democracies: the difficulty of many young people finding their rightful place in society and obtaining a certain amount of pleasure and satisfaction.

Vulnerable young people have always been ideal prey for gurus of all sorts, particularly gurus of religious sects. More recently, the al-Qaedas, ISIS and Boko Harams of this world have entered the market in a big way, capitalising on the immense possibilities offered by the internet. These well structured jihadist organisations have many talented gurus of different cultures and nationalities who are experts on the latest personalised brainwashing and recruiting techniques. ISIS has even compiled a recruitment guide describing the most vulnerable profiles to target and the methods to be employed. Surprising as it may seem, Muslims are not listed among the more vulnerable targets.

The gurus progressively lead their young victims through a psychological process that isolates them from their school teachers, their friends and finally, their families, persuading them, at each stage, that they are being manipulated and prevented from living their lives as they should.

At the end of the process, the only person the victim trusts is the guru. He is exfiltrated out of his home country guided by the guru to the destination of the recruiting organisation. On arrival, he is taken in charge by the jihadists and from that moment on there is a dramatic change of décor. His passport is confiscated and he loses his identity. He is given a jihadist name.

He is then put through a process of dehumanisation, making him totally indifferent to the plight of others, irrespective of who they are or how badly they are treated. Female victims are veiled from head to foot with a black burqa and married to a jihadist or to several jihadists in succession at brief intervals giving birth to numerous children. It has also been reported that, in many instances, male victims are submitted to mass rape and treated as objects in order to depersonalise and reify them as part of the dehumanisation process.

The apprentice jihadists are not known to receive any formal religious education but lead the lives of the group in which they find themselves. This may or may not include some form of religious practice. However, a belief in martyrdom, a hatred of infidels, and a commitment to violent jihad is the basis of their lifestyle. They are brainwashed into believing that if they die fighting to defend their jihadist religious doctrine they will go to heaven and receive 36 virgins as a reward for their sacrifice. The "life impulse" (posited by Schopenhauer and later developed by Freud)is progressively repressed and they become dominated by the "death impulse", the impelling desire for death and destruction.

The apparently inexhaustible source of human drones and bombs the jihadists are able to tap into is quite impressive. The human weapons they produce and train are remarkably efficient and dispose of much greater autonomy than anything the US or any other nation can produce.

Of course we are the ones who are providing the jihadists with the endless supply of raw material for the production of these human weapons which return like boomerangs to destroy us. What can we do to prevent it?

In France, a not-for-profit organisation known as the CPDSI (Centre for the Prevention of Sectarian aberrations associated with Islam) was mandated in April 2014 by the French Ministry of Internal Affairs to study the problem and implement appropriate measures to control it. The head of the organisation is Ms Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist of religion with experience working with people indoctrinated by gurus of religious sects.

According to the Director of Public Prosecutions in France, François Molins, in November 2014 there were 1 132 French citizens operating in jihadist networks, of whom 376 were in Syria and Iraq including 88 females and 10 minors. However, some observers esteem that this total has increased to about 1 600 over the past twelve months.