Ali Sina - Understanding Muhammad

When Sane People Follow Insane People
Telegraph on February 25, 2007, the Security Services in the UK believe that
there are more than 2,000 Muslims plotting to engage in terrorist activities in
that country. There is not a single day that someone is not killed by the hands of
Muslim terrorists somewhere in the world. What will it take for the world to
wake up and realize that Islam is not a religion but a dangerous cult When are
we going to pay attention to the Qur’an and the history of Islam to understand
that terrorists are not “extremists” but practicing Muslims following the real,
original teachings of their “holy” book and the examples set by their beloved
prophet
Once people convert to Islam, they enter an underworld of illusions,
ignorance and fear, where fantasy takes the form of reality and evil is perceived
as divine. Their values disintegrate and they act in ways they would have
considered unbecoming and unacceptable prior to their Islamic indoctrination.
The more they act in this depraved way, the more hardened they become, to the
extent that returning to the real, world becomes almost impossible. Islam
unfolds like a creeping paralysis, slowly corrupting minds and spirits, until it
produces the best of all Muslims, the jihadi, commonly known as terrorists, the
most beloved ones of Allâh and his prophet.
Osherow gives a thorough psychological explanation of this
phenomenon: “According to dissonance theory, when a person commits an act
or holds a cognition that is psychologically inconsistent with his or her selfconcept,
the inconsistency arouses an unpleasant state of tension. The individual
tries to reduce this ‘dissonance,’ usually by altering his or her attitudes to bring
them more into line with the previously discrepant action or belief. A number of
occurrences in the People's Temple can be illuminated by viewing them in light
of this process. The horrifying events of Jonestown were not due merely to the
threat of force, nor did they erupt instantaneously. That is, it was not the case
that something ‘snapped’ in people’s minds, suddenly causing them to behave in
bizarre ways. Rather, as the theory of cognitive dissonance spells out, people
seek to justify their choices and commitments. Just as a towering waterfall can
begin as a trickle, so too can the impetus for doing extreme or calamitous
actions be provided by the consequences of agreeing to do seemingly trivial
ones. In the People’s Temple, the process started with the effects of undergoing
a severe initiation to join the church, was reinforced by the tendency to justify
ones commitments, and was strengthened by the need to rationalize ones
behavior.”
New converts to Islam often face more hardship, which they interpret as
“test of God” and a “cleansing process.” It starts by abstaining from drinking
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