The following is historical fact, not fiction, and it is shared here in the hopes of helping Americans better understand the pathology surrounding the way radical Muslim splinter groups today think. It is not presented as a justification for embroiling ourselves further in wars of empire that drain our economy and divert our attention away from vital domestic issues.
Among the hills and waddis of Afghanistan, arranged in clandestine cells around the world, purposed to destroying the West are the spiritual descendants of a secret society that once called themselves the Assassins and whose power lasted little more than a hundred years ending with the advance of the Mongols.
The roots of Al Qaeda stretch much farther back than 1980, the year a Muslim organization calling itself Maktab al-Khidamat (Services Office) formed to raise and channel funds and recruit foreign mujaheddin for the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
They actually stretch back to the seventh century when a schism between Muslims produced two warring factions the Sunnis and the Shiites. At the heart of this bitterly violent disagreement in the Muslim faith is a disagreement over descent and therefore legitimate authority. The Sunnis believed authority should be handed down to the Prophet's closest and most trusted advisers called caliphs while the Shiites insist that the bloodline must be rigorously sustained and proposed Mohammad's cousin Ali (and not the caliphs) as the Prophet's successor.
Historically, the wars between Sunnis and Shiites have been much fiercer than anything Christendom endured during the reformation. Outnumbered ten to one the Shiites were usually defeated. But it was the slaughter of Ali, his grandson Husayn, and every member of his family at the hands of the Umayyads (a caliphate which also invaded Europe threatening it with Islamization but whose advance was fortunately stopped at the Battle of Tours) that provide Shiites with the sense of tragedy and minority persecution that inspire their sense of martyrdom.
In the secrecy needed by Shiites to survive in a Sunni dominated Muslim world, came splinter groups. Two of the most significant were the Twelvers and the Ismailis. From this came a group of Ismailis in Cairo around AD 1000 which founded the Abode of Learning attracting acolytes with promises of secret techniques that would enable believers to carry out divine missions on behalf of Allah. The structure employed at the Abode of Learning became a model by which Muslim secret societies arranged themselves in following centuries.
Instead of a top down pyramid configuration with authority flowing from the top of the pyramid, these societies are cell based arraying themselves in series of concentric circles with the ultimate power residing somewhere in the hub. Circular organizations are not nearly as easily understood or penetrated as pyramid structures are. In addition, the number of circles varies and outsiders are never aware how close they may be to the actual center of power.
As John Reynolds explains in 'Secret Societies: The World's Most Notorious Organizations':
"The circular configuration of the Abode of Learning, copied by religious-based secret societies over the years, began with study groups called Assemblies of Wisdom, designed to discard candidates lacking sufficient dedication.
Successful graduates entered a nine-stage initiation procedure built upon the characteristic circle structure. This initiation process represents a classic method of securing allegiance to a group's cause and building a foundation of unquestioned obedience."
The bottom line was that acolytes were tempted or lured into the organization where they were severely brainwashed. It started with doubts planted about the values and concepts they had been taught to respect all their lives during the first initiation stage. Applying false analogies, teachers dismantled their student's entire belief system and dismissed it.
First stage graduates moved into the second stage where they became convinced of the organization's moral and spiritual transcendence. In the third and fourth stages, they learned the secret revelations and ritual. In the fifth stage, a type of meditation that severely damages the ability of individuals to think for themselves became the goal.
The sixth degree consisted of instruction in analytical and destructive arguments. The seventh degree offered more revelation. The eight and ninth degrees reinforced that everything was fraudulent except total servitude to the imams (e.g. leaders of the organization) and that only action taken in response to instructions of these leaders resulted in entrance to paradise after death.
In time, a truly evil man named Hasan discovered and customized the Abode of Learning methodology to gather around loyal acolytes and build what became known as the Assassins or fedayeen.
Hassan-i-Sabah (started the fedayeen otherwise known as the Assassins)
Some of the brainwashing techniques he introduced included drugging young acolytes into unconsciousness and then taking them to specially constructed gardens full of young women where, upon being awakened, they were told that Hasan had mystically transported them to paradise where their every desire for all eternity could be fulfilled. Afterwards, they were drugged back into sleep and carried back to their rooms where they awoke with the kind of faith that makes for a true martyr. A faith that Hasan put to use.
None of the methods used by Hasan (and those who replaced him upon his death) surprise contemporary experts. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, in his book 'Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism' discusses primary characteristics used by secret societies today that are as effective today as they were in Hasan's time. First is a charismatic leaders who becomes the object of worship; second is thought reform (e.g. brainwashing); and third is exploitation by the leader and ruling elite.
After the Mongols destroyed their centers of influence in the thirteenth century, Assassin remnants escaped to India, Iraq, Iran and Syria where they remain today as splinter groups of militant Shiites.
But it was the fidayeenHasan and his successors, that became Islamic fanatics battling enemies of the Prophet.
For them, the promise of eternity in Paradise is the incentive that seems to work even without the persuasion of Hasan's contrived "previews." Though Osama bin Laden is a Sunni, the philosophical justification and organizational structure between Hasan's Assassins and Osma bin Laden's Al Qaeda remains unbroken.
The restored castle at Masyaf - formerly headquarters of the Assassins.
Further Reading:
Reynolds J. L. (2006). Secret Societies: Inside the world's most notorious organizations. Arcade Publishing: New York.
Lewis B. (2002). The Assassins. Basic Books: New York.
The Three Stages of Jihad
Answering Islam
http://www.answering-islam.org/
The Grand Deception
Three surprising things you probably didn't know about Islam:
Among the hills and waddis of Afghanistan, arranged in clandestine cells around the world, purposed to destroying the West are the spiritual descendants of a secret society that once called themselves the Assassins and whose power lasted little more than a hundred years ending with the advance of the Mongols.
The roots of Al Qaeda stretch much farther back than 1980, the year a Muslim organization calling itself Maktab al-Khidamat (Services Office) formed to raise and channel funds and recruit foreign mujaheddin for the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
They actually stretch back to the seventh century when a schism between Muslims produced two warring factions the Sunnis and the Shiites. At the heart of this bitterly violent disagreement in the Muslim faith is a disagreement over descent and therefore legitimate authority. The Sunnis believed authority should be handed down to the Prophet's closest and most trusted advisers called caliphs while the Shiites insist that the bloodline must be rigorously sustained and proposed Mohammad's cousin Ali (and not the caliphs) as the Prophet's successor.
Historically, the wars between Sunnis and Shiites have been much fiercer than anything Christendom endured during the reformation. Outnumbered ten to one the Shiites were usually defeated. But it was the slaughter of Ali, his grandson Husayn, and every member of his family at the hands of the Umayyads (a caliphate which also invaded Europe threatening it with Islamization but whose advance was fortunately stopped at the Battle of Tours) that provide Shiites with the sense of tragedy and minority persecution that inspire their sense of martyrdom.
In the secrecy needed by Shiites to survive in a Sunni dominated Muslim world, came splinter groups. Two of the most significant were the Twelvers and the Ismailis. From this came a group of Ismailis in Cairo around AD 1000 which founded the Abode of Learning attracting acolytes with promises of secret techniques that would enable believers to carry out divine missions on behalf of Allah. The structure employed at the Abode of Learning became a model by which Muslim secret societies arranged themselves in following centuries.
Instead of a top down pyramid configuration with authority flowing from the top of the pyramid, these societies are cell based arraying themselves in series of concentric circles with the ultimate power residing somewhere in the hub. Circular organizations are not nearly as easily understood or penetrated as pyramid structures are. In addition, the number of circles varies and outsiders are never aware how close they may be to the actual center of power.
As John Reynolds explains in 'Secret Societies: The World's Most Notorious Organizations':
"The circular configuration of the Abode of Learning, copied by religious-based secret societies over the years, began with study groups called Assemblies of Wisdom, designed to discard candidates lacking sufficient dedication.
Successful graduates entered a nine-stage initiation procedure built upon the characteristic circle structure. This initiation process represents a classic method of securing allegiance to a group's cause and building a foundation of unquestioned obedience."
The bottom line was that acolytes were tempted or lured into the organization where they were severely brainwashed. It started with doubts planted about the values and concepts they had been taught to respect all their lives during the first initiation stage. Applying false analogies, teachers dismantled their student's entire belief system and dismissed it.
First stage graduates moved into the second stage where they became convinced of the organization's moral and spiritual transcendence. In the third and fourth stages, they learned the secret revelations and ritual. In the fifth stage, a type of meditation that severely damages the ability of individuals to think for themselves became the goal.
The sixth degree consisted of instruction in analytical and destructive arguments. The seventh degree offered more revelation. The eight and ninth degrees reinforced that everything was fraudulent except total servitude to the imams (e.g. leaders of the organization) and that only action taken in response to instructions of these leaders resulted in entrance to paradise after death.
In time, a truly evil man named Hasan discovered and customized the Abode of Learning methodology to gather around loyal acolytes and build what became known as the Assassins or fedayeen.
Hassan-i-Sabah (started the fedayeen otherwise known as the Assassins)
Some of the brainwashing techniques he introduced included drugging young acolytes into unconsciousness and then taking them to specially constructed gardens full of young women where, upon being awakened, they were told that Hasan had mystically transported them to paradise where their every desire for all eternity could be fulfilled. Afterwards, they were drugged back into sleep and carried back to their rooms where they awoke with the kind of faith that makes for a true martyr. A faith that Hasan put to use.
None of the methods used by Hasan (and those who replaced him upon his death) surprise contemporary experts. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, in his book 'Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism' discusses primary characteristics used by secret societies today that are as effective today as they were in Hasan's time. First is a charismatic leaders who becomes the object of worship; second is thought reform (e.g. brainwashing); and third is exploitation by the leader and ruling elite.
After the Mongols destroyed their centers of influence in the thirteenth century, Assassin remnants escaped to India, Iraq, Iran and Syria where they remain today as splinter groups of militant Shiites.
But it was the fidayeenHasan and his successors, that became Islamic fanatics battling enemies of the Prophet.
For them, the promise of eternity in Paradise is the incentive that seems to work even without the persuasion of Hasan's contrived "previews." Though Osama bin Laden is a Sunni, the philosophical justification and organizational structure between Hasan's Assassins and Osma bin Laden's Al Qaeda remains unbroken.
The restored castle at Masyaf - formerly headquarters of the Assassins.
Further Reading:
Reynolds J. L. (2006). Secret Societies: Inside the world's most notorious organizations. Arcade Publishing: New York.
Lewis B. (2002). The Assassins. Basic Books: New York.
The Three Stages of Jihad
Answering Islam
http://www.answering-islam.org/
The Grand Deception
Three surprising things you probably didn't know about Islam:
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