The Psychoanalytic Roots of Islamic Terrorism |
I |
N the ongoing battle for Fallujah, terrorists are using women and
children as human shields against American soldiers. On
Despite enormous and continuing denial on the part of left and
liberal ideologues and the media, we are facing an exceedingly pathological
strain of Islamo-fascist terrorism. So a crucial question must be asked: from a
psychological and anthropological point of view, what kind of culture produces
human bombs, glorifies mass murderers, and supports humiliation-based revenge?
According to
According to Dr. Kobrin, "The little girl
lives her life under a communal death threat--the honor killing." Both
male and female infants and children are brought up by mothers (who are debased
and traumatized women). As such, all children are forever psychologically
"contaminated" by the humiliated yet all-powerful mother. Arab and
Muslim boys must disassociate themselves from her in spectacularly savage ways.
But, on a deep unconscious level, they may also wish to remain merged with the
source of contamination – a conflict that suicide bombers both act out and resolve
when they manfully kill but also merge their blood eternally with that of their
presumably most hated enemies, the Israeli Jews. In Kobrin's view, the Israeli
Jews may actually function as substitutes or scapegoats
for an even more primal, hated/loved enemy: Woman.
Widespread child sexual abuse leads to
paranoid, highly traumatized, and revenge-seeking adults. Based on my own
experience in
Clearly, only evolution of democracy and the
elevation of women can begin to change such dynamics. Western feminists,
American leaders: Please note. Alas, historically and theologically, Arab and
Muslim culture strongly opposes both democracy and equality for women. This is
why the battles to liberate
Yesterday, further confirmation of Dr. Kobrin's
thesis arrived at my door. The remarkable and charming Walid Shoebat, an ex-PLO
terrorist, came to visit. He has been speaking about his renunciation of
terrorism and conversion to evangelical Christianity. Shoebat has been touring
the country speaking out for
Shoebat confirmed the widespread sexual abuse
of both boys and girls in Palestinian society. "It is a strange society.
Homosexuality is forbidden but if you're the penetrator, not the penetrated,
it's okay." He is describing prison sexuality. "If you're a teenage
boy with no hair on your legs other boys your age will pinch your butt and
tease you. Once, I saw a class of clothed teenage boys sexualize
their gymnastics exercizes. And once, on a hiking trip, I saw a line of
shepherd boys waiting for their turn to sodomize a five year old boy. It was
unbelievable."
Shoebat's father also told him stories about
starving Arab men who would barter sex for meat from Iraqi
soldiers. According to Shoebat, teenage boys prey upon younger children;
older male relatives prey upon pre-adolescent and adolescent boys and girls.
They do not have intercourse with the girls since this would render them
un-marriageable and bring shame upon their families. I heard many stories in
both
Most Arabs and Muslims will deny that this is
so. They will attack westerners who say so as "orientalists, colonialists,
racists." Western intellectuals will agree with them. They have been well
indoctrinated by western academics were the ones who first glorified the work
of the late Edward W. Said who, in my opinion, published his master work,
Orientalism, in 1978 as a way of denying feminist ideas and refocusing academic
attention away from women and onto brown, Muslim, Arab men as the truest
victims of oppression. Neat trick.
Shoebat's grandfather was the Muktar of his
village. Nevertheless, eleven-fifteen people lived cramped into two rooms with
a huge balcony, a courtyard, and an outhouse. Once, when Shoebat's
American-born Christian mother, (she was forced to convert to Islam), upended a
backgammon board in front of his father Achmed's friends, Achmed took a hammer
and cracked her skull. Shoebat, her youngest child, took her hand and walked with
her to the nearest church where the nuns sewed up her head. There were no
hospitals. Whenever his mother tried to escape, (always together with her three
children) the Shoebat men would find her, re-kidnap her, subject
her to further punishment.
The male sexual abuse of female children exists
everywhere; it is one of the main means of traumatizing and shaming women into
obedience and rendering them incapable of resistance or rebellion. However, the
male sexual abuse of male children--denied, never admitted – may work
differently and may turn boys into predatory, pedophilic men. Also, among Arabs
and Muslims, revenge killings are uniquely prevalent.
Shoebat told me several extraordinary stories
which illustrate Palestinian and Arab Middle Eastern mentality. One of his
paternal uncles was supposedly having an affair with the mother of Yusuf
Al-Atrash who belongs to the family of Sami Al-Altrash, the Montreal-based
student who stopped Bibi Netanyahu from speaking at
Shoebat asked me how I would resolve this
feud-unto-death because of his uncle Najib, who was also the chief of
police. I foundered. Bride-exchange sacrifice? Blood money? I could not come up with the ingenious plan
that Najib crafted--a plan which may also shed light, in part, upon the
nature of the Arab war against the Jews. Najib persuaded the village
that they had to attack, pogrom-style, a nearby Jewish community. (Ramat
Rachel). Once the Israelis opened fire in self-defense, most of the Arabs fled.
However, the Arab attack upon the Jews provided cover for what Najib had to do: He himself snipered Yusuf in the back.
When the Israelis, as they always did, allowed the Arabs to safely retrieve
their dead, Najib proclaimed Yusuf al-Atrash a "shahid" and
buried him in his bloody clothing. This is a mark of honor. A
"shahid" enters heaven more quickly, clothed in his
own blood.
This characterizes an Arab way of thinking.
From here, it is easy to create the kinds of doctored footage and
photo-opportunity journalism that has dominated this latest Intifada against
the Jews. It is also a way of thinking that the liberal western media does not
comprehend.
Yusuf's martyrdom was not enough,
the "honor" of the al-Atrash family had not yet been redeemed.
Another man from the al-Atrash family attacked Shoebat's father Achmed, who, in
self-defense, "ripped his stomach open like a sheep." The man did not
die. Shoebat's father immediately went into hiding. By this time, Shoebat
was living in
And only in this way was Shoebat finally able
to rescue his mother. He paid the blood money and brought both his
long-suffering mother and her abuser, his father, to
Recently, Shoebat's brother–a man they had
previously socialized with-- called Shoebat's wife. "Tell your husband
that we know what he is doing against Islam. Tell him we know where he lives.
Bye bye."
"I told my wife, Welcome to the
Shoebat is, miraculously, engaged in redefining
loyalty. He has taken his mother's side, and in so doing, has broken with the
shame, honor, and secrecy codes of his father's culture. It is important to
understand that Shoebat has not broken with his father. On the contrary, he
rescued him too. Shoebat's mother and father both live near him in the
These amazing anecdotes confirm the veracity of
Dr. Kobrin's work. In my view, they also suggest that Americans and Europeans
begin to think twice about what Arabs tell them about who started a fight, and
why the Israelis, the Jews, and the Americans are to blame.
Phyllis Chesler, PhD, is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies and the author of twelve books including the best-selling WOMEN AND MADNESS and most recently, THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM. THE CURRENT CRISIS AND WHAT WE MUST DO ABOUT IT (Jossey-Bass/John Wiley). She may be reached at her website http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/.