Boko Haram

While the world scrambles to deal with the continually growing threat of radical Islam, the true underlying causes of this phenomenon are grossly ignored. Governments – local, federal and international – are considering various strategies to contend with this unprecedented danger in various ways: militarily, politically, criminally and culturally, all the time ignoring the biological root cause of Islamic terrorism. The world runs the risk of continued peril if it does not quickly come to terms with the following politically incorrect fact: radical Islamic culture, in its various fanatic forms, leads to severe mental and emotional impairment. The conclusion, even more politically incorrect than the hypothesis, is that the culture of radical Islam must be shut down in all countries that believe in human freedom and mental health. A further conclusion is that political or cultural arrangements that allow for the preservation of this deranged culture can only lead to disaster.

Several important researchers, such as John Crayton, Jerrold Post and Richard Pearlstein, take the “terrorist as mentally ill” approach in trying to make sense of the phenomenon of individual acts of terror. Post asserts that individuals drawn to terrorism rely on the psychological mechanisms of ‘externilization’ and ‘splitting’. These psychological mechanisms are, according to Post, found in “individuals with narcissistic and borderline personality disturbances”, disturbances that usually occur during childhood and early adulthood. The ability to healthily integrate the good and bad sides of one’s personality is lost and thus their split personalities are split into “me” and “not me”, the one capable of inflicting violent damage on the other, including suicides that destroy their surroundings as well.

Is it not only possible, but rather probable, that societies that raise their young under a constant atmosphere of violence, rape, fear, jealousy, disciplinary stringency, an erased and even deprecated sense of the feminine self, may just be a breeding ground for violent fanaticism?

For instance, female genital mutilation, a practice common to much of Islamic society, can result in severe bleeding, neurogenic shock, haemorrhagic shock, severe pain, shame and trauma; it goes without saying, all this without the requisite medical and psychological help given to the victim. Honor killings have risen greatly as of late amongst Arab societies with horrendous affects not only for the hapless woman, but for family as well. A Palestinian reported that after a woman was killed for suspected adultery, her children were left “for two weeks, incapable of sleep, crying for their mother.”

Child rape, both male and female, and by both mother and father, is common in many segments of Muslim society, and now it has spread to those that would respect the religious and cultural mores of their Muslim immigrants. In a 2014 BBC report on the Muslim immigrant population, it was reported that “at least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013…..children as young as 11 were raped by multiple perpetrators, abducted, trafficked to other cities in England, beaten and intimidated.”

Domestic violence against women, according to many but not all scholars of Muslim jurisprudence, is allowed and not subject to punishment. Add to this the roaring role of the Imam in the mosque and the constant message of violence against the infidel, the total and utter lack of sensitivity in the killing of animals for consumption (compare  Jewish ritual slaughter or Western government-approved slaughter with Halal slaughter), children and women being made to stand in front of their men as protection, and an entire list of similar atrocities. It seems a pretty good bet that if we examined these segments of Muslim populations  psychologically, we would see a large segment of this population suffering from ‘externalization’ and ‘splitting’. In biological terms, we would see different patterns of brain region activation, epigenetic negative influence on normal gene expression and even anatomical differences caused by trauma on the developing brain.

Can solving this problem really be seen as something that has to do with good will and multiculturalism? Can any political deal made with these people really produce something longer lasting than the ink on the document? Is it any wonder that so many non-Muslim grown psychopaths are finding their way to radical Islam (perhaps radical Islam represents to them one form of “not me” that they can easily identify with)?

In a 2012 paper entitled “Dynamic Epigenetic Responses To Childhood Exposure to Violence”,  Jonathan Mill writes, “Of note, changes in DNA methylation following early life stress have been associated with long-term changes in gene expression and behavior and may contribute to both psychiatric disorders and physiological disturbances later in life.” He provides evidence of altered gene expression due to juvenile violence.

British researchers found significant differences between the brains of psychopaths and normal people, specifically in the uncinate fasciculus, while earlier studies have shown similar differences in the emotional and violence regulating center – the amygdala – and the orbitofrontal cortex, an area important for decision making. Lead researcher, Dr. Michael Craig states, “The suggestion of a clear structural deficit in the brains of psychopaths has profound implications for clinicians, research scientists and the criminal justice system.”

Dr. Craig should have noted as well that the implications for politicians and social scientists are no less important. Viewing Muslim terror in this way reveals, for instance, the utter futility and even great danger of ideas such as the Two State Solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Taking from Israel the ability to militarily patrol this breeding ground of psychopaths is insane.  It will never work. Psychopathic societies are never satiated (need we mention Global Jihad and the Global Caliphate?). Will the Muslims in Pakistan ever stop their murderous fury against the Hindus? I doubt it – unless they stop following radical Islam.

The world can help with this and put an end to radical Islam. But it must be understood that this is a problem for the World Health Organization, not for the UN proper; radical interpretations of Sharia Law as a global health problem. The very many Islamic apologists, Barack Hussein Obama included, must understand that if they desire to protect any vestige of goodwill towards Islam, they must help to eradicate those very many biological aspects that lead to gross mental regression. This means, first and foremost, reigning in Sharia Law. It is time to tame radical Islam, which means not only ISIS, but also a score of political movements that create this sickened and dark reality – Hamas and Boko Haram as just two examples.

There can be no political negotiations with the deranged. For Europe and America, there can be no cultural respect for those that lead their own down the slippery slope of mental illness.

Most importantly, it behooves those Muslims that reject the methods and ideologies of the radical Islamists to create strong societal borders even within their own communities, to not only theoretically reject but to functionally halt this growing plague. Should they not do so, the boundaries between radical Islam and Islam will be understandably blurred by outsiders in the Western world and the consequences that even the moderate Muslims suffer will be completely of their own making.