by Sujit Das
Financial fraud is involved in almost all the destructive cults. The cult leader attempts to obtain all the worldly possessions of their members. These “cults of greed” promise the target groups that if they join them and follow their special program for success, they will be very rich. Often they will hold up their leader as example and explain that if the member does what the leader says then he would be successful too. As example; the Chonjonhoe cult lured its members by promising material and spiritual rewards and deceived them some thirty-four million US$, which the leaders spent for living in luxury. Muhammad was greedy. His only source of income was looting of caravans, ransom and slave-trade. He encouraged his followers to spend money in the cause of Allah. In Islam, Allah borrows money from Muslims to wage jihad against the non-Muslims. More precisely, Allah uses Muslims’ money (hard cash) to buy war implements to fight the non-Muslims.
Ye will not attain unto piety until ye spend of that which ye love. And whatsoever ye spend, Allah is Aware thereof. (Q: 3.92).
Who is it that will lend unto Allah a goodly loan, so that He may give it increase manifold? Allah straiteneth and enlargeth. Unto Him ye will return . (Q: 2.245).
The likeness of those who spend their wealth in Allah’s way is as the likeness of a grain which groweth seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains. Allah giveth increase manifold to whom He will. (Q: 2.261).
All that you spend in the Way of Allah shall be repaid to you. You shall not be wronged . (Q: 8.60).
If ye loan to Allah, a beautiful loan, He will double it to your (credit), and He will grant you Forgiveness: for Allah is most ready to appreciate (service), Most Forbearing. (Q: 64.17).
And whatsoever ye spend (for good) He replaceth it. And He is the Best of Providers. (Q: 34.39)
Those who lend a good loan to Allah, shall be repaid in multiples. They shall receive a generous wage . (Q: 57.18).
In the above verses who is asking money from the Muslims? God does not need money but the god-man does. All the beggars teach that others should give. It was Muhammad who needed money for his military expeditions to expand his empire, not Allah. But Muhammad was reluctant to spend from his own pocket. There is not a single verse where Allah tells Muhammad to spend from his own share. Is not this a financial fraud?
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, ‘O Allah! Compensate every person who spends in Your Cause,’ and the other (angel) says, ‘O Allah! Destroy every miser .’ (Bukhari: 2.24.522)
Many cult leaders also require to the members to sever all outside relationships with their families and friends (Snow, 2003, p. 28). They believe that the families are part of enemy system because they harm one’s total dedication to the cause. Muhammad destroyed happy family ties. Qur’an says,
We have enjoined on man kindness to parents; but if they strive to make thee join with Me that of which thou hast no knowledge, then obey them not. Unto Me is your return and I shall tell you what ye used to do. (Q: 29.8).
O ye who believe! Lo! Among your wives and your children there are enemies for you, therefore beware of them. And if ye efface and overlook and forgive, then lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (Q: 64.14)
Your ties of kindred and your children will avail you naught upon the Day of Resurrection. He will part you. Allah is Seer of what ye do. (Q: 60.3)
Allah’s instruction was very clear. He wanted the Muslims to disobey their parents and abandon them, if they stand on their way to accept Islam. Centuries later, another tyrant used the same technique. The Hitler Youth Program taught young Germans to inform on their parents if they dissented from the Nazi party line. Allah’s verdict about the separation of relatives and children on the Judgment Day has the same implication. We cannot separate Islam from other deadly cults which had caused much harm not only to the cult members but others also. Few notorious cults and cult leaders are Jim Jones, David Koresh, Order of the solar temple, Heaven’s gate and Charles Manson.
When Jim Jones started preaching in 1965, he had a handful of followers. He stressed the need for racial equality and integration, and helped the poor. When the followers started multiplying, he gradually assumed the role of Messiah and named his cult “Peoples Temple” and shifted to Jonestown. With time he demanded more obedience and loyalty which his followers were more than eager to comply. He convinced them that the world would be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust and if they followed him, only they would emerge as survivors. This picture reflects Islam in similarity. In the beginning, Muhammad was a peaceful preacher; he called people to believe in God and fear the Day of Judgment. Accordingly the early verses were peaceful. But when his influence grew and number of followers increased, he showed his real face. He became a bandit and threatened his followers with Allah’s punishment if they did not obey him. When Muhammad wanted his followers to migrate to Medina, he had exactly the same plan in his mind as Jim Jones. Many were reluctant, so Muhammad turned his more loyal followers against those who did not want to leave. Allah revealed the following verse,
Surely those who believed and fled (their homes) and struggled hard in Allah’s way (to establish Islam) with their property and their souls, and those who gave shelter and helped— these are guardians of each other; and (as for) those who believed and did not fly, not yours is their guardianship until they fly; and if they seek aid from you in the matter of religion, aid is incumbent on you except against a people between whom and you there is a treaty, and Allah sees what you do. (Q: 8.72)
Everything was going well within Peoples Temple, however during 1978, his group members killed five people including one politician who came to Jonestown for a fact-finding mission. Following this incident, Jim gathered his followers and told them to drink cyanide-laced beverage along with sedatives. Jim was reported to have said, “We must die with some dignity. Do not be afraid to die”. For those who were afraid to die, Jim advised (cited Pafumi, 2010, p. 91), “ Death is just stepping over into another plane. We did not commit suicide; we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhuman world ”.
Muhammad advised Muslims to die in the cause of Allah. For Jim it was “ an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhuman world”, and for Muhammad, “ Allah has purchased from the believers their selves and possessions, and for them is Paradise. They fight in the Way of Allah, slay, and are slain. ” (Q: 9.111). But for both of them suffering for the faith constitute a powerful testimonial.
According to Jim, death is friendly; it is just entering into a new dimension. He convinced his people that by killing themselves they were not committing suicide. Muhammad convinced his followers that dying for Allah was martyrdom. Allah confirmed that the Muslims who are killed in his cause would enter paradise.
You must not think that those who were killed in the way of Allah are dead. But rather, they are alive with their Lord and have been provided for rejoicing in the Bounty that Allah has given to them and having glad tidings in those who remain behind and have not joined them, for no fear shall be on them neither shall they sorrow . (Q: 3.169, 170).
For those who fought and were killed in My Cause, I shall blot out their sins and admit them indeed to Paradise . (Q: 3.195)
Holy jihad is a religious duty of every Muslim. The exact phrase is “al-jihad fi sabil Allah” – striving in the cause of Allah (Arimbi, 2006, p. 88; Willis, 1967, p. 396). Jim led 909 of his followers (includes 276 children) in a mass suicide, which was for him “death as the final proof of faith”. Muhammad asked his followers for an ultimate test of devotion to the cause of Allah by glorifying martyrdom. When Muhammad was told that the only chance of martyrdom was dying in the battle, he is reported to have replied, “ Then the number of martyrs in my community would be small” (Cook, 2007, p. 35). In fact, Muhammad glorified the status of a martyr to such an extent that many Muslims sought to attain it without the inconvenience of actually going out to fight.
Neither Jim nor Mu
hammad ever valued the preservation of human lives. Both of them put themselves in the place of God. As Vaknin (1999, p. 148) commented, “ In playing God, the Narcissist is completely convinced that he is playing himself. He will not hesitate to put people’s lives and fortunes at stake ”. Muhammad was indistinguishable from Allah.
Those who deny Allah and His messengers, and (those who) wish to separate Allah from His messengers , saying: “We believe in some but reject others”: And (those who) wish to take a course midway. They are in truth (equally) unbelievers; and we have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment . (Q: 4.150-1)
Vaknin continued, “ He feels part of a grand design, a world plan and the frame of affiliation, the group, of which he is a member, must be commensurately grand. Its proportions and properties must resonate with his. Its characteristics must justify his and its ideology must conform to his preconceived opinions and prejudices. In short, the group must magnify the Narcissist, echo and amplify his life, his views, his knowledge, his history ”.
Similar to Jim Jones, another deadly cult was Heaven’s gate where thirty-nine members committed suicide. Yet another cult led by Charles Manson ordered his followers to enter the houses of rich people randomly, kill them, and make it look as if it has been done by the blacks. Charles had a cause which was preservation of air, trees, water, animals (ATWA). He made his cause look so important that it justified murder. All these cult leaders had something in common. They were capable of subverting individual’s sense of control over their own thinking, behavior, emotions, or decision-making by using various psychological tactics.
The cult leaders use a belief system as their base. It can be any standard religion or they may have invented their own belief system. In the beginning, this belief system often appears innocent. When Charles talked about preservation of ATWA, or when Jim stressed the need for racial equality and integration and his group helped the poor, or when Muhammad started preaching peacefully in Mecca, no one could see anything wrong in it. What makes a cult leader dangerous is that they make the people zombies by controlling their minds, not what they believe. If the Muslims want to believe in oneness of Allah and Muhammad’s prophethood, it is fine; the world has no inconvenience. The problem starts when the poisonous teachings of Muhammad infect their minds, and the brainwashed Muslims turn their religion into a killing machine. That is why the notion of mind control is so central in the cult issue.
The cult leaders desperately trick the unsuspecting people into joining and coerce them into staying. They are after the obedience, time and money of the potential victims. They have to use deception because if people knew their motives beforehand, then they would not join. Hence the leader needs to hide the truth from the potential victim until he is sure that the person is completely under his grip. For example, if Jim Jones was open and honest about the group and had said to new recruits – “Join us, give me all your money and then drink poison and die happily”, he would not have any takers. If the leader of the Heavens Gate cult had told their new entries that the name of his cult was a misnomer and the more appropriate name should be “Gateway to Hell”, were there any possibility for the leader to establish his cult? If Muhammad had shown his “feet of clay” at Mecca, would Islam have survived?
Cult leaders control a person by controlling his behavior. When a new person first goes to a cult, the cult members will practice “love bombing”, where they arrange instant friends for him. It seems wonderful; how could such a loving group be wrong! But the new member soon learns that if he ever disagrees with them then he will lose all the supports. This unspoken threat influences the member’s actions in the cult. This is “control of behavior” (Hassan, 1990, p. 60). Things, that usually would have made him complain, will pass by silently because he does not want to be ostracized.
Cults also try to cut the member off from his friends and family because they hate others being able to influence him. The members are forced to accept; “All that is good is embodied in the leader and the group. All that is bad is on the outside”. This is “control of thought” (Hassan, 1990, p. 60). Also, members are taught never to feel for themselves or their own needs but always to think of the group and never to complain. They are never to criticize the leader but criticize themselves instead (Hassan, 1990, p. 64). This is “control of emotions”.
Then there is “control of information”. Free thought is not allowed. The leader convinces his victims that any information from outside the cult is evil, especially if it is opposing the cult. They are told not to read it or believe it, and these should be discarded as “spiritual pornography”, or “apostate literature”. The victims are told that such critical information should be destroyed immediately and the members should not even entertain the thought that the information could be true (Hassan, 1990, p. 65). Only information supplied by the cult is true. This is what Muhammad had instructed in his Qur’an.
When you hear His verses being disbelieved or mocked, do not sit with them until they engage in other talk, or else you will surely be like them. Allah will surely gather the hypocrites and unbelievers altogether in Hell . (Q: 4.140)
All these evidences make Islam a cult in the guise of a religion. It is not only the biggest and most successful cult but also the most dangerous.
6.3: Islam and Apostasy
In a pure religious organization, the members would not have any trouble with the people in authority to move to another religion or to a different sect within the same religion because it is the belief system that matters, not membership in an organization. As example; when a Christian wants to change his faith, he can do it without much resistance from the members of his former faith. Similarly, when he moves from one church to another, he can still be a Christian. But in the cults the leaders tell that the members can only be “saved” (or can only be successful) in their organization alone and nowhere else. No other organization has the truth; all others miss the mark. Narcissists strongly disapprove of others’ personal autonomy and independence. So it is not the belief system that decides the member’s future, but the belief system together with his membership with that particular group. This is a major difference between a cult and a religion.
The Islamic leadership is feared like a cult leadership is feared. To disagree with the leadership is same as disagreeing with God. The cult leaders claim to have direct authority from God to control almost all aspects of the followers’ lives. Even questioning the leaders or the agenda is still seen as a sign of rebellion and stupidity. Under Islamic law an apostate must be put to death. There is no dispute on this among classical and modern Muslim scholars. But there is a controversy as to whether Qur’an prescribes any punishment for apostasy in this world or the apostates are threatened with punishment in the afterworld (Warraq, 2003, p. 17). In some verses (3.85, 2.217, 16.106) apostasy is not acceptable to Allah. However, in the following verses Allah commands Muslims to kill the apostates.
Therefore, do not take a guide from them until they emigrate in the way of Allah. Then, if they turn back take them and kill them wherever you find them. Do not take them for guides or helpers . (Q: 4.89).
Say; flight will not avail you, if you flee from death or slaughter, you would enjoy (this world) only for a little (time) . (Q: 33.15, 16)
Some ahadith describes how apostates were tortured and killed by Muhammad and his companions.
Narrated Ikrima: Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn ‘Abbas, who said, “Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them … I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him. ‘ (Bukhari: 4.52. 260)
Narrated Abdullah: Allah’s Messenger said, The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Messenger, cannot be shed except in three cases: … and the one who reverts from Islam (Apostate) and leaves the Muslims. (Bukhari: 9.83.17)
Narrated Abu Bruda; Abu Musa said, He was a Jew and became a Muslim and the
n reverted back to Judaism. Then Abu Musa requested Muadh to sit down but Muadh said, “I will not sit down till he has been killed. This is the judgment of Allah and His Messenger,” and repeated it thrice. Then Abu Musa ordered that the man be killed, and he was killed. (Bukhari: 9.83.58)
Some of the apostates, during Muhammad and the early Caliphs, were poor people. They were of no threat to the Muslims. Despite this, they were brutally murdered. Sometimes the apostates fought the rule of Islam; in other cases they simply rejected Islam by realizing the evil in Islam. However always leaving Islam was the fundamental reason to kill them because the apostates hurt Muhammad’s narcissistic feelings. A Narcissist feels devalued once his victims desert him. As Vaknin (1999, p. 199, 273) wrote, “ The Narcissist never really separates from his sources of Narcissistic supply until and unless they cease to be ones. They never say real good bye … He would do everything to lead to the fulfillment of his greatest horror: being deserted ”.
However, Allah’s hatred towards the apostates is the direct violation of the Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states;
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance .
Muslims living in Islamic countries have no problem with the rule of putting apostates to death but those living in the West are embarrassed because the Western nations value the freedom of thought and speech which Islam does not. These virtues have never blossomed under Islamic rule.
Muhammad valued only those people who were his narcissistic supply sources. The value judgment was not for the sake of the followers but what they provided him. If that production comes to a standstill and the person ever comes to discover the true nature of the Narcissist hidden underneath all his colorful layers, he is quickly and thoroughly devalued and demonized. Thus, the Narcissist becomes panicky and sometimes violently reacts to the “drop-outs” from his cult. There are many things the Narcissist wants to keep under wraps. Abandonment threatens his precariously balanced personality. Hence apostasy is a serious offence in Islam. It is recorded in Muslim hadith (9.29) that during Muhammad’s lifetime, and the lifetimes of the next four Caliphs, hundreds of thousands of Muslims left Islam.