Chosen by God to Purify the World

July 13, 2003

Al-Qaida and the Taliban:

The Pattern of Cults

Examining the underpinnings of September 11

By Stephen Martin

There are striking parallels between cults and what we have discovered in the past year about al-Qaida and the Taliban of Afghanistan. In both types of groups, the processes of recruitment, group dynamics, thought reform, and resulting personality changes are very similar.

In a study long before September 11th, Clark McCauley and Mary Segal point out that "In terms of group dynamics, both cults and terrorist groups offer a full array of reinforcements to members: affective, social, cognitive, and material. These rewards depend in both kinds of groups on powerful interpersonal bonds among group members." (13:246)

People join such groups out of needs for a sense of belonging and a sense of mission, not usually knowing the group's agenda or what the end result will be. McCauley and Segal also point out characteristics that are very likely representative of al-Qaida and the Taliban: "Cognitive rewards of group membership include reinforcement of the individual's sense of mission and self-righteousness (7/13:239) in a social reality (9/13:239) that can give especially the drifting or unsuccessful individual a new and significant self-image." (13:239)

Margaret Singer, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, speaks of "the five D's - deceit, dependency, debilitation, dread and desensitization - by which cult members are recruited and transformed. It's a step-at-a-time seduction, so the person hardly notices they are being changed," says Singer. According to her, recruiting the Sept. 11th suicide pilots almost certainly began with "the first D" - deceit. Almost certainly, someone did not start by approaching Mohamed Atta and asking him, "Say, how'd you like to commit suicide?" (12:4)

Normal and idealistic people can become terrorists. To understand how this can happen, it is important to realize that their radical behavior is developed gradually, progressing from the less to the more extreme. (We observe the same to be true in cult members.) It is common for an individual to join a succession of groups and causes, beginning with ones that patronize relatively pacifist goals (8/13:235,236). In some cases, the person may commit to terrorism only when it appears that terrorist action is the only possible alternative to bring about desired social or political change. (13:235,236) "Once connected with an extreme group, a new recruit may gradually move from peripheral activities designed to support the group's terrorist tactics to the acts of violence that are central to the group's purpose." (13:237)

The biographical information about Mohamed Atta is noteworthy, as told by James Long:

Mohamed Atta, suspected leader of the suicide bombers, has been described in news reports as a shy, considerate son of a lawyer and very bright. He grew up in a religious home and studied architecture at the University of Cairo. He joined an Islamic fundamentalist society, sympathizing with insurgents who blamed Egypt's secular government for extremes of wealth and poverty.

While living in Hamburg, Germany, Atta made lengthy trips to the Middle East. He returned from one visit, friends thought to Afghanistan, with a new beard and a new personality. [As parents often notice when their kids join a cult.] The new Atta did not smile and, one friend recalled, refused to shake hands with a woman.

After Atta was identified as the suspected pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, the first to crash into the World Trade Center, his bewildered father told reporters it must have been someone else. He insisted that someone must have stolen his son's identity.

The father's disbelief, therapists say, is a familiar one. They can recount hundreds of stories about people undergoing personality changes so radical their families scarcely know them. (12:2,3)

The al-Qaida terrorist group closely resembles Aum Shinri Kyo, the cult responsible for the poisonous gas attack in Tokyo subways in 1995. Dr. Steven DuBrow-Eichel, a Philadelphia psychiatrist who specializes in cults, observes that al-Qaida and Aum Shinri Kyo are almost identical in their adulation of a single charismatic leader - Osama bin Laden for al-Qaida, Shoko Asahara for the Japanese group; and both have their sincere conviction that they are chosen by God to purify the world.

July 13, 2003

Al-Qaida and the Taliban (page 2)

By Stephen Martin

We now turn to the characteristics of "thought reform" or "mind control" that are universal to every cult. The characteristics outlined below are taken from Dr. Robert J. Lifton's classic book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'Brainwashing' in China. He completed this book in 1961, based upon research he did in the mid 1950s after the Communist takeover of that country. Since then, the elements of "brainwashing," or "thought reform" that he draws together in Chapter 22 have been recognized as the same elements, also known as "mind control," that exist in every cult today. Consequently, Dr. Lifton's work has become a standard reference for identifying a cult. The elements he describes are indeed found in al-Qaida and the Taliban. I was able to find examples of most of these elements. Therefore, further research and investigation is needed and this article should be viewed as a preliminary study. In fact, "Few specifics are known about al-Qaida's methods, but cult experts point to the indoctrination of children in fundamentalist religious schools, and of adults by extremist clerics, and finally the isolation of selected recruits in training camps." (12:3) And as for the Taliban, "No leader in the world today is surrounded by as much secrecy and mystery as Mullah Mohammed Omar." (16:23)

Though our knowledge of these groups is incomplete, the following criteria provide clear evidence of cult activity. What follows is a brief summary of each of Dr. Lifton's elements, then examples from al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Milieu Control

Milieu Control is an environment in which the leader imposes a limitation of communication and interaction with the world outside the group, except, of course, for the purpose of recruiting. This limitation stems from the conviction that their group alone possesses the truth. In order to engineer the soul into this "truth," they believe that they must bring the person under full observational control. In effect, such a one is actually boxed in, or even isolated to one degree or another, and thus hindered from obtaining what is true and relevant outside the group. (11:420-422)

Al-Qaida: Children are indoctrinated in fundamentalist religious schools, adults are indoctrinated by extremist clerics, and the selected recruits are isolated in training camps. (12:3) Cult expert Steve Hassan notes what happens in bin Laden's terrorist training camps: "social isolation, controlling their sleep, showing them non-stop videos of Muslims dying, being buddied up, so that they're never alone." (14b)

Research into other terrorist groups reveals that they live in a kind of underground "fantasy world,cut off from most normal contacts with society, and that this kind of existence can produce disturbed perceptions of the real world." (6/13:239)

Taliban: Most of the following information about the Taliban is taken from Ahmed Rashid's book Taliban. Rashid is a journalist and correspondent who traveled and lived with the Taliban and interviewed most of its leaders. He observed that "The Taliban are a new generation of Muslim males who are products of a war culture, who have spent much of their adult lives in complete segregation from their own communities." (16:111)

"As Mullah Omar became more powerful and introverted, declining to travel to see and understand the rest of the country and meet the people under his control, the movement's power structure developed all the faults of the Mujaheddin and communist predecessors." (16:95) Between 1994 and when the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, their decision-making process changed and became "highly centralized, secretive, dictatorial and inaccessible." (16:95)

A citizen of Afghanistan, Sara Amiryar, relates what happened to her country: "They burned the books, banned music, and forbade Afghans from congregating in twos or threes… the Taliban came into our country and took our liberties and freedoms away." (3:5) A person could be put in jail for owning a television. Women were forbidden to attend school (5). Education for boys also came to a standstill in Kabul because most of the teachers were women, who were now forbidden to work. Consequently, an entire generation of Afghan children grew up without any education. (16:106) The Taliban are poorly tutored in the histories of Islam and Afghanistan. "While Islamic radicalism in the twentieth century has a long history of scholarly writing and debate, the Taliban have no such historical perspective or tradition." (16:93)

Mystical Manipulation

A powerful means of instilling belief in someone or persuading someone is to strike a sense of awe and enthusiasm within the person through various forms of "mystical manipulation" by manipulating circumstances or the environment from behind the scenes. The resulting "mystical aura" that surrounds the system and the leader is sheer deceit. Such leaders perform these deceitful manipulations in order to maintain a sense of power over their followers. But more importantly, they feel driven by a sense of their own "higher purpose," and the belief that they are special agents chosen by history, by God, or by some other supernatural force in order to carry out what they think is their imperative mission. Their overriding sense of this mission makes these manipulations justifiable in their own minds. An awe-inspiring group and leader get the recruits excited about the cause and mission of the group, so that they devote themselves to this cause and this mission. A cult leader (or "ideological totalist," as Lifton calls them) will exploit this zeal and faith within the new followers to the point where the mission is given more importance than the immediate needs or even the lives of the members. These members eventually accept and endorse this "importance" of the mission as their own, even coming to the point where they feel it is necessary to submit to any abuse or command from the leader in order to fulfill the "higher purpose" which to the member may mean his own ultimate salvation. At this point, the member feels unable to escape from these forces that are (or seem to be) more powerful than he, so he gives in, subordinating everything to adapting himself to them. Lifton calls this "the psychology of the pawn." (11: 422,423)

Al-Qaida: The obvious result and manifestation of this is in suicide bombings. Soon after the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush, in his Address to Congress and the American People, said:

We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions - by abandoning every value except the will to power - they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. (5)

Taliban: [see in "Combinations" below]

Demand for Purity

This is a categorization of good and evil in which even human limitations, weaknesses, and imperfections are categorized as "sin," and perhaps looked upon with condemnation. It is a kind of purity that is unattainable; in other words, a demand for perfection. It is a standard of purity, of rightness and wrongness, as defined by the leader (the ideological totalist). Every human being has a certain amount of guilt and shame which can be tapped into. Given a totalist leader, this guilt and shame can be used to remind the subject of his limitations and weaknesses and be used as a manipulative appeal to search for the ultimate standard of good as defined by the authoritative leader. The result is a burden of man-made rules and prohibitions that come to be accepted as necessary for purity or perfection, but which are hard to bear, and this causes undue guilt and shame. Hence, it is a system of legalism. The guilt and shame are used as emotional levers, and serve to prod the member toward continuous reform of himself or herself. The subject keeps on striving painfully to meet the prevailing standard. But it is like being on a treadmill, or like the carrot on a stick that the wagon driver dangles in front of the donkey. If the subject does not progress according to the standard, measure up to the standard, or keep the rules, he can expect punishment, humiliation, and ostracism. (11:423-425)

Al-Qaida: [see in "Combinations" below]

Taliban: The following were some of the rules and edicts and consequences for violations:

Kite-flying, once a favorite pastime in the spring for the people of Kabul, was banned (16:107,218,219)

All sports for women were banned. (16:107)

A person could be put in jail for owning a television. (5)

Soldiers would search homes for evidence of violations of the Taliban's religious decrees, such as depictions of living things (photographs, stuffed toys, etc.) (1:1)

Beards had to extend farther than a fist clamped at the base of the chin. (1:1) A man could be beaten in public by the religious police if his beard was not long enough (16:106), or put in jail until it grew to the required length. (1:1 / 5)

The religious police also stood on street corners with scissors cutting off long hair on men. (16:114,115)

Men's shalwars or baggy trousers had to be above the ankle. (16:114,115)

Taliban gender restrictions interfered with the delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance to women and girls. (1:1)

The Taliban militia would beat individuals on the streets for what were deemed infractions of their rules concerning restriction on women being in the company of men. (1:1)

As head of the Taliban's religious police, Maulvi Qalamuddin issued a stream of regulations that dramatically altered the once easy-going lifestyle of Kabul's population, and forced Afghan women to fade entirely from public view. (16:105)

Women had to be concealed from men's eyes by wearing a burkha - a robe that covers her head to toe. A screen inserted in the burkha concealed even her eyes. Every part of her was hidden except her shoes, as observed in numerous news reports in 2001.

When the Taliban first entered Kabul, the religious police beat women in public if they were not wearing the burkha properly. (16:106) A woman had to be dressed in the all-covering robe even when she went to a doctor, as told in this story by Paul Harvey:

[The doctor's] examination, his treatment - whatever - must be conducted in the dark. Dr. Mohammed Hashim of the Malali Maternity Hospital in Kabul might use X-ray to detect a woman's tumor. But for any further examination he must reach under her garments and hope that his hands might detect what his eyes were not permitted to see. A woman in childbirth must be attended by a woman also wearing a burkha - utterly unsanitary, by the way. Dr. Hashim was allowed only to stand outside the delivery room door and shout instructions or summarily be sent to prison.…The highest paid position in the hospital, his pay has never been more than thirty dollars a month, often for months at a time he was not paid at all. Something the Taliban called The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice carried out surprise inspections of the hospital, trying to catch a doctor talking to a nurse [also an example of Milieu Control]. But Dr. Hashim put up with it all, all of the troubles, all of the dangers because he explains: he could not imagine turning his back on the profession of his choice or on the land of his birth. (10)

July 13, 2003

Al-Qaida and the Taliban (page 3)

By Stephen Martin

Sacred Science

The totalist environment maintains an atmosphere or an aura of sacredness around its teachings and practices. Therefore, any doubts or questions about the system are prohibited. The prohibitions may be either clearly evident or subtly implied. Anyone who criticizes or disagrees with what's going on, or proposes alternative ideas is looked upon as evil and irreverent. Thus, the ideas of a human leader are exalted to the level of God's thoughts. If an individual accepts and goes along with the teachings and practices, being caught up in the aura of sacredness can give a sense of comfort and security, and thus lead to a posture of unquestioning faith. The "sacred science" can gain such a strong hold over the person's mental processes that if he begins to feel attracted to contradictory or alternative ideas, he may feel guilty and afraid. Consequently, his quest for what is true and real is hindered. (And this actually contradicts the character of the genuinely scientific approach.) (11: 427-429)

Al-Qaida: [see in "Combinations" below]

Taliban:

Anyone questioning the edicts of the Taliban was tantamount to questioning Islam itself. (16:107)

The UN and Western governments had tried to make them compromise and moderate their policies. The gender issue became the primary platform of the Taliban's resistance. "Compromise with the West would signal a defeat that they were wrong all along, defiance would signal victory." (16:111)

"Qalamuddin admitted that he has thousands of informers in the army… 'Our staff all have experience in religious issues. And we are an independent organization and we don't take advice from the Justice Ministry or the Supreme Court as to what we should implement. We obey the orders of the Amir Mullah Mohammed Omar.' " (16:106)

There was a struggle between moderate and hardline Taliban that went underground with no Taliban leader willing to contradict or oppose Omar. (16:104)

"The Taliban have clearly debased the Deobandi tradition of learning and reform, with their rigidity, accepting no concept of doubt except as sin and considering debate as little more than heresy." (16:93)

Doctrine Over Person

Doctrine Over Person essentially consists of fitting everything under their control into a preconceived mold. This involves:

No appreciation of someone's talents, individuality or creativity; their only goal is to fit everyone and their personalities into the preconceived mold of the doctrinal system, opposing diversity and individual differences.

No recognition of one's feelings or sensitivities.

The rigidity of the doctrinal mold resists adaptation even when adaptation may prove to be best.

The rewriting of history to fit the system of the doctrinal mold. (11:430-432)

Al-Qaida and Taliban: [see both in "Combinations" below.]

Dispensing of Existence

The totalist environment draws a sharp line between those who have a right to exist and those who do not. Those outside their group have no right to exist. The group thus has an arrogant and elitist mentality, considering themselves superior rather than having equal rights as other humans. (11:433,434)

Al-Qaida:

"He [Osama bin Laden] opposes the equal role of women in society." (17) "He is reported to act on the premise that attack is the best line of defense, rather than efforts to unify extremist groups." (2:2)

"They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa." (5)

The opposite of Dispensing of Existence is well stated by President Bush in his Address to Congress and the American People soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks: "No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith." (5)

Taliban:

After 1996, the Taliban let it be known that they wanted to become the sole rulers of Afghanistan without the participation of other groups. They claimed that the ethnic diversity of the nation was adequately represented within the Taliban movement itself "and they set out to conquer the rest of the country to prove it." (16:95,96)

Ahmed Rashid explains an intricate picture of ethnic groups and warlords in Afghanistan, and how the Taliban's own concept of jihad played out in the inner conflict of the country. He points out that jihad does not approve the killing of fellow Muslims merely on the basis of ethnicity or sect as the Taliban apparently thinks it does. And it is this Talibanic interpretation of jihad that appalls the non-Pashtuns. The Taliban claimed they were fighting a jihad against corrupt, evil Muslims, but the ethnic minorities saw them as using Islam as a cover to exterminate non-Pashtuns. (16:87) "The Taliban represented nobody but themselves and they recognized no Islam except their own." (16:88)

They also rejected Afghan intellectuals and technocrats, because they considered them to be the product of a Western or Soviet-style educational system which they abhorred. (16:97) (Ironically, then, they became just like the Soviets by adopting a totalitarian system, both of which have these characteristics.)

Cult of Confession and Loading the Language

These are two other criteria for which I did not find examples in my research, though as stated earlier, some specifics are not known and al-Qaida and the Taliban are surrounded by much secrecy. Cult of Confession is associated with the Demand for Purity and involves open confession in front of the leader and often in front of the group. It is intended to expose and rid the member of those impurities which the leader so labels. What it amounts to, however, is open self-degradation. This leads to exploitation of the member's vulnerabilities. (11: 425-427). Loading the Language involves the use and manipulation of words and phrases to produce "thought-terminating cliches." It is thus a tool and extension of the "Sacred Science" - language that is used in order to stifle doubts and criticism, resulting in a narrowing and constriction of thought processes. (11: 429,430)

July 13, 2003

Combinations

Milieu Control, Demand for Purity

Taliban:

Their decrees prohibited music: "In shops, hotels, vehicles and rickshaws cassettes and music are prohibited. …If any music cassette found in a shop, the shopkeeper should be imprisoned and the shop locked. …If cassette found in the vehicle, the vehicle and the driver will be imprisoned." (16:218, 219) "According to Education Minister Mullah Abdul Hanifi, the Taliban 'oppose music because it creates a strain in the mind and hampers study of Islam'. "(4/16:115)

"Paint your nails, take a snapshot of a friend, blow a flute, clap to a beat, invite a foreigner over for tea and you have broken a Taliban edict," wrote American reporter Carla Power. (15/16:114)

Milieu Control, Sacred Science

Taliban: There was no scholarly analysis of Islamic or Afghan history. They had little exposure to the radical Islamic debate around the world, and even less awareness of their own history. The result was an obscurantism that allowed no room for debate even with fellow Muslims. (16:93)

Milieu Control, Sacred Science, Doctrine Over Person, Dispensing of Existence

Taliban: They were vehemently opposed to modern ways and had no desire to understand or adopt new ideas of progress or economic development. (16:93)

Milieu Control, Sacred Science, Dispensing of Existence

Al-Qaida: President Bush in his September 20 Address to Congress and the American People said, "Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber - a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms - our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." (5)

Milieu Control, Doctrine Over Person, Dispensing of Existence

Taliban:

They did not allow paintings, portraits, or photographs in homes. One of Afghanistan's foremost artists, Mohammed Mashal, aged 82, was painting a huge mural showing 500 years of history of the western Afghan city of Herat. The Taliban forced him to watch as they whitewashed over it. They simply did not acknowledge the idea of culture. (16:115)

They banned the traditional Afghan New Year's celebrations, Nawroz, as anti-Islamic. Nawroz is an ancient spring festival when people visit the graves of their relatives. (16:115)

Milieu Control, Dispensing of Existence

Taliban: It was against the law to preach Christianity in Afghanistan. If anyone did, they were put on trial as was seen in the case of the foreign aid workers in the summer and fall of 2001, reported in various news sources. They were imprisoned and even faced the possibility of the death penalty (but were fortunately freed during the war).

Mystical Manipulation, Demand for Purity

Al-Qaida: The al-Qaida terrorist group closely resembles Aum Shinri Kyo, the cult responsible for the poisonous gas attack in the subways of Tokyo, Japan, in 1995. Dr. Steven DuBrow-Eichel, a Philadelphia psychiatrist who specializes in cults, observes that al-Qaida and Aum Shinri Kyo are almost identical in their adulation of a single charismatic leader - Osama bin Laden for al-Qaida, Shoko Asahara for the Japanese group; and both have a sincere conviction that they are chosen by God to purify the world. (12:2)

Mystical Manipulation, Sacred Science, Doctrine Over Person

Al-Qaida: Osama bin Laden opposes the Western world's attention to individualism, personal freedoms, and its embracing of diversity. (17:4)

Demand for Purity, Doctrine Over Person

Taliban: "All Kabul males were given just six weeks to grow a full beard, even though some of the ethnic groups such as the Hazaras have very limited beard growth. Beards could not be trimmed shorter than a man's fist, leading to jokes that Afghanistan's biggest import-export business was male facial hair and that men did not need visas to travel to Afghanistan, they just needed a beard." (16:114)

Sacred Science, Dispensing of Existence

Taliban: "[They] did not allow even Muslim reporters to question [the Taliban's] edicts or to discuss interpretations of the Koran. To foreign aid-workers they simply said, 'You are not Muslim so you have no right to discuss Islam.' The Taliban were right, their interpretation of Islam was right and everything else was wrong and an expression of human weakness and a lack of piety." (16:107)

Demand for Purity, Dispensing of Existence

Taliban:

Quoting a Taliban edict: " 'Women are not allowed to work in any field except the medical sector. Women working in the medical sector should not sit in the seat next to the driver. No Afghan woman has the right to be transported in the same car as foreigners.' "

(16:106) They also claimed that sexual opportunities would weaken and subvert their recruits so that they would not fight with the same zeal. So the oppression of women became a benchmark for their Islamic radicalism, their goal to "cleanse" society and keep the morale of their troops high. (16:111)

For this combination, Demand for Purity and Dispensing of Existence, it is noteworthy to quote Dr. Lifton on a particular aspect of the Demand for Purity in the individuals that it affects: "He must also look upon his impurities as originating from outside influences - that is, from the ever-threatening world beyond the closed, totalist ken. Therefore, one of his best ways to relieve himself of some of his burden of guilt is to denounce, continuously and hostilely, these same outside influences. The more guilty he feels, the greater his hatred, and the more threatening they seem. In this manner, the universal psychological tendency toward 'projection' is nourished and institutionalized, leading to mass hatreds, purges of heretics, and to political and religious holy wars." (11: 425)

Al-Qaida

"It seeks to bring on the final battle of Armageddon by launching a holy war against the existing social order. Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda is definitely of [this] type; indeed, it is a classic case," says author John R. Hall. (14a)

John Pike and Steven Aftergood observe that, "Al-Qa'ida's goal… is to overthrow nearly all Muslim governments, which are viewed as corrupt, to drive Western influence from those countries, and eventually to abolish state boundaries." (2:1)

"Bin-Laden… advocates the destruction of the United States, which he sees as the chief obstacle to reform in Muslim societies. Since 1996, his anti-U.S. rhetoric has escalated to the point of calling for worldwide attacks on Americans and allies, including civilians." (2:3)

July 13, 2003

Conclusion

Stephen Kent, a professor of the psychology of religion at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, said that the teachings of any religion can be distorted for political gain. Terrorists "dip into the mainstream aspects of this tradition, extract an array of ideas on the value of martyrdom and use this to justify violent action." (18:3)

In an article by James Long, "Dr. Robert Jay Lifton… said he wouldn't label al-Qaida simply as a cult but as more of a social movement that is all the more sinister because it doesn't depend entirely on cultic control. " 'What we see is people who are not kids anymore engaging in a kind of institutionalization and socialization of terrorism,' he says. 'You depend for this kind of suicidal terrorism not only on fiercely extreme young people but on not-so-young people who become part of the group within which this is normal or desired behavior.' The extremism is promoted, he says, by giving status not only to those who kill themselves while killing a perceived enemy, but to their families who are showered with money and gifts." (12:3,4)

In a study of terrorist groups prior to and other than al-Qaida and the Taliban, it is noted that the primary sources of support among members of a terrorist group are fellow terrorists. They place high emphasis on social support during their entire recruitment process. An already-active, often older, member will be the potential recruit's only contact within the organization, and will give him an ongoing supportive relationship from the start on through minor involvements of increasing complexity and danger. (13:240). Social support and supportive relationships are what people long for, and can be used for evil or for good. The fact that this happens in terrorist groups should open our eyes. If individuals do not find social support and supportive relationships in a culture, family, or religious organization, they will go somewhere else where they will find it - perhaps in a place of evil.

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Stephen Martin is Cult Prevention Educator and a Workshop Leader for clients at Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center in Albany, Ohio. He is currently working on a book that examines the methods of mind control in light of Judeo-Christian thought.

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References

In the main text, the number after the colon ( refers to the page number. The following references marked with an asterisk (*) are sources that have been cited indirectly within the other sources.

Aftergood, Steven. Taleban ("the Seekers"). Intelligence Resource Program. December 21, 1999. http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/taleban.htm.

Aftergood, Steven, & Pike, John. Al-Qa'ida (The Base). Intelligence Resource Program. December 7, 2001. http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ladin.htm.

Amiryar, Sara, quoted by Abigail Van Buren in "Dear Abby." December 17, 2001. "Many have forgotten Afghanistan's past." Published in The Athens Messenger, Athens, Ohio. Dec. 17, 2001.

*Associated Press, 'Taliban restrict music,' 18 December 1996. (Cited in Rashid).

Bush, President George W., Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People. September 20, 2001.

*Cordes, B., Hoffman, B., Jenkins, B., Kellen, K., Moran, S., & Sater, W. (1984). Trends in international terrorism, 1982 and 1983. Santa Monica, CA: Rand. (In the words of McCauley & Segal).

*Crenshaw, M. (1981). The causes of terrorism. Comparative Politics, 13, 379-399. (Cited in McCauley & Segal).

*Crenshaw, M. (1985). An organizational approach to the analysis of political terrorism. Orbis, 29, 465-489. (Cited in McCauley & Segal).

*Festinger, L. (1950). Informal social communication. Psychological Review, 57, 271-282. (Cited in McCauley & Segal).

Harvey, Paul. Paul Harvey News. November 29, 2001.

Lifton, Robert Jay. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'Brainwashing' in China. The University of North Carolina Press. 1989. Originally published by W.W. Norton & Company. 1961.

Long, James. "Cults, terrorist groups share chilling similarities, experts say." The Oregonian. November 9, 2001.

McCauley, Clark R., & Segal, Mary E. (1987). "Social Psychology of Terrorist Groups," in Hendrick, Clyde, (Ed.). Group Processes and intergroup relations. (pp. 231-256). Thousand Oaks, CA, USSage Publications, Inc.

Pearson, Patricia. "Apocalyptic cult methods explain bin laden." USA Today. November 5, 2001. p. 15A. The following are quoted: (a) John R. Hall. (b) Steve Hassan.

*Power, Carla, "City of Secrets," Newsweek, July 13, 1998. (Cited in Rashid).

Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Yale University Press. 2000.

Toronto Globe and Mail. "What we stand for …let us reflect on core values that were attacked." Published in The Athens Messenger, Athens, Ohio. September 18, 2001. p.4

Umrigar, Thrity. "Experts explain terrorist training." Akron Beacon Journal. October 24, 2001. http://www.ohio.com/home/docs_news/006109.htm.