RELIGIOUS INDOCTRINATION

Jasneh Sasan

Religious Indoctrination creates an individual spectrum that ranges from mild to extreme indoctrination. Put simply, it is the weaponization of religion to heroize one religious group over another.

Mild religious conditioning can cause socio-political tensions amongst religious groups or sects. However, according to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the U.S., religious extremism and extremist indoctrination are the root causes of terrorism.

In a study conducted by the Psychology of Terrorism Initiative, Dr. Randy Borum, the director of the program, detailed the direct causational relationship between terrorism and religious indoctrination.

"Extremist ideologies of a secular or religious nature are at least an intermediate cause of terrorism, although people usually adopt such extremist ideologies as a consequence of more fundamental political or personal reasons. When these worldviews are adopted and applied in order to interpret situations and guide action, they tend to take on a dynamic of their own, and may serve to dehumanize the enemy and justify atrocities," Borum said.

Religious extremism is most prevalent in South Asia and the Middle East*, specifically within Jihadist** groups in Iraq, Syria, and the general caliphate***, commonly known as I.S.I.S., Daesh, or al-Qaeda.

In his research paper, "I.S.I.S. Child Soldiers in Syria: The Structural and Predatory Recruitment, Enlistment, Pre-Training Indoctrination, Training, and Deployment," by Dr. Asaad Almohammad, a Senior Researcher with the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and a prominent member of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, researched the methods of indoctrination used to coerce children, specifically under the age of 15, into serving terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.

In his paper, Almohammad explains how terrorist groups like al-Qaeda use isolationist practices, subject their child soldiers to continuous violence, and brainwash minors into believing that if they sacrifice their life for the Jihadist cause, they would appease God and thus be liberated.

"The two books that are intensely taught at [Jihadist] schools are Learn the Order of Your Religion and the Book of Monotheism and Doctrine. Through the first book, children are taught the meaning of 'no god but allah',' al-Wala (loyalty) and al-Bara (disavowal). Furthermore they're taught the Takfir-- the belief that anyone who isn't a Muslim is impure and tyrannical" Almohammad said in his paper.

According to Statista, there were close to 30,000 reported deaths due to religious-extremist terrorist attacks in 2020 alone. Since 2006, there have been over 306,000 fatalities as a result of terrorist attacks worldwide.

Religious indoctrination, similar to the extremist conditioning practiced by terrorist groups have taken the lives of thousands of civilians and started various global conflicts— including America's "War on Terrorism."

*The Middle East is one of many regions that utilizes religious indoctrination. Jihadism is not a tenant of Islam, nor is it accepted by the grand majority of the global Muslim population. Islam doesn't teach violence, terrorism, or extremism. This article specifically mentions Jihadist terrorist groups, not the Islamic community as a whole.

**Jihadism is a term constructed to refer to fundamentalist militant groups within the Islamic community. The Islamic community has openly condemned such terrorist organizations.

***The Caliphate refers to the general Islamic Middle East region.

2006

SOURCE: STATISTA