by Sujit Das
Every culture changes itself slowly, but it can also change in a dramatic way. Full-scale cultural transformation usually happens only under the threat of force (Twenge & Campbell, 2010, p. 307). The best example is Iran, where a group of Mullahs imposed strict Islamic practice on a largely unhappy population. Germany was one of the richest and most peaceful nations in Europe, yet under the Nazis the urge to ride roughshod over weaker nations and impose an iron fist across Europe proved irresistible (Morse, 2010, p. 2). However, when a cultural change takes place under pressure, the core cultural ideas co-opt themselves to fit a new vision. As example, Hitler turned German culture something very ugly and twisted, but he did it using core ideas from the existing culture. He rose to power by wielding Teutonic myths, stories of Aryan history and the ancient symbols like swastika. Muhammad imposed religious fanaticism on a rather peaceful pre-Islamic culture by including most of the pagan practices in his religion. Hitler and Muhammad were cut from the same cloth – fully committed, ruthless and totally dedicated fanatics. Hitler was stopped, Mein Kampf was exposed, and Nazism was eradicated, as they could not coexist with a civilized world. Once the grip of Islam loosens, the culture of Arabia might revert back to its pre-Islamic form.
6.7: How Muhammad Enslaved the Early Muslims?
People cannot survive in a social isolation. Everyone wants to be a productive member of the community to feel proud and to give support to others. This built-in instinctive need is very strong. Logic is not as strong as our need to be accepted in a community. Since this is a strong need, some immoral people can exploit it in a cult for money and power. People join cult thinking that it is a healthy group; they want to be ethical and responsible for one another. By trusting the leader they allow themselves to be reprogrammed by the leader. Slowly the leader convinces them that they are required to accept a lot of new information on faith, and once they accept that, they start seeing reality relative to that new information they are working with. Ultimately the leader’s teachings become absolute truth. Muhammad, as the founder of Islam, performed no different. His early followers were mostly slaves and stray people who had no stand or no hope in the society. Though he started his mission as a humble spokesman of God, gradually he became the single powerful leader of his cult. He focused full attention on himself and became more of a source for “truth” than God.
The early Muslims who fought, killed or got killed for Allah were ordinary individuals who had once led peaceful lives. But something made them vulnerable and needy. Searching for something to fill the holes in their lives, they had the misfortune of meeting a charismatic malignant Narcissist and falling under his spell. Gradually, more and more isolated, they were indoctrinated into the mind set of Islam, and ultimately Muhammad’s word and teachings became absolute truth. They became inverted Narcissists.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778), a French enlightenment writer and philosopher famous for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, had immense hate for Muhammad. He wrote a Muslim blasphemous play Mahomet, performed in 1742 and dedicated to Pope Benedict XIV, where Muhammad was presented as an imposter who enslaved men’s souls (Spencer, 2005, p. 20). This play was a study of religious fanaticism and self-serving manipulation based on an episode in the traditional biography of Muhammad in which he orders the murder of his critics. Voltaire (1745) described the play as, “… written in opposition to the founder of a false and barbarous sect to whom could I with more propriety inscribe a satire on the cruelty and errors of a false Prophet ”. Today, with the development of psychology and personality disorder studies, thanks to Freud, Jung, Kernberg, Kohut, Vaknin, Masterson, Hotchkiss and many others, we know how true Voltaire was. Muslim’s perpetual mental slavery is repugnant and awful, and because of this perpetual mental slavery, Muslims cannot write an honest biography of their Prophet that does not hide the truth. They have to defend Islam’s foolishness, more precisely; the inverted Narcissists have to protect the Narcissist.
Muhammad had used various methods to manipulate people in his cult.
6.7.1: The Fatal Attraction of Muhammad’s Fantasy World
The fantasy world of a Narcissist has a seductive allure which promises the potential victim in its specialness. Except few people; like, Abu Bakr, Uthman, Ali and Omar; most of Muhammad’s early followers were a bunch of slaves and socially outcast people belonging to the dignitaries of the Quraysh. Due to their poverty, these slaves were vulnerable and deprived of many things in their lives. Muhammad gave them hope – “Accept Allah as God and me as messenger of God. Obey my command and paradise is assured for you”.
Allah’s erotic paradise is the sweetest bait that was ever dangled before the Muslims to motivate them to fight. In the God-Prophet relationship, Muhammad was the dominating force, and the message was clear – “Fight the infidels. If you win you will get sex and booty and if you die Allah will reward you”. It was such a win-win situation. Muhammad’s paradise was glittered with the fulfillment of all kinds of worldly desires and sense enjoyment. It was a sinister ploy to recruit those who had no hope or expectation of ever getting those things in their present lives.
Distortion of reality is a common practice of the Narcissists; it works wonder. The lure of paradise, booty and women were simply irresistible to those early Muslims. If we say, “A belief system is a lens through which we can see God”, then Muhammad had distorted this lens and it resulted in distorting their picture of God. The minds of the Muslims were “kidnapped” by Muhammad.
6.7.2: The Superficial Charm of Muhammad
The superficial charm of a Narcissist is enchanting. They often appear simple, saint-like, colorful and exciting as they draw the innocent targets into its web. Often they pretend to be wonderful and entertaining. Sometimes there is extreme and unrealistic flattery. But, under this cover-up, they always look for the narcissistic vulnerabilities of the targets. Muhammad had a pleasant personality. He used to greet people (obviously whom he liked) with a sweet smile. He hardly laughed, and if he did, he covered his mouth. He loved perfume (Muslim: 7.2700). It is a fact that we, consciously or unconsciously, judge a person’s character by his appearance. Osama bin Laden was very soft-spoken and had a saintly face, Saddam Hussein had an uncle-like friendly ear-to-ear smile, and Hitler had a comical face with a funny moustache. Yet all of them have committed crimes that are beyond imagination. There is no “face of evil”.
Moreover, many of the Narcissists are fully aware of the power of oratory. A great speech requires eloquence, a moment of consequence and ideas of importance. Both bin Laden and Hitler had the gift of the gab. They could mesmerize people with their talk. Laden was a truly gifted orator, and his amazing oratory skill had inspired hundreds of youth to lay down their lives as suicide bomber. Muhammad had the ability to talk readily, fluently, and convincingly. He believed that “in eloquence there is magic” (Sunnan Abu Dawud: 4.4994) and used to say, “Some eloquent speech has the influence of magic” (Bukhari: 7.62.76). Elsewhere he boasted, “ I have been given the keys of eloquent speech and given victory with terror” (Bukhari: 9.87.127).
The superficial charm and high charisma of Muhammad was a tactics used to get his way. By acting nicely on the surface, he concealed his true personality. His charm was entirely insincere. He used his “skills” to gain the trust of unsuspecting people and then lured them into his narcissistic trap.
6.7.3: Muhammad’s Mental Instability
The mental instability of their Prophet often confused the early Muslims. There was a vast difference between what he had preached and what he had followed. He presented himself as an honorable messenger of God, but lived the life of a criminal. This “Jekyll and Hyde” unpredictability and the swift changes of mood and priorities of a Narcissist often deny the people around him their autonomy, their unperturbed development and self-fulfillment and their path to self-reorganization. It compels the people to live in a constant fear and anxiety – what next?, where next?, who next?, when next? This fear of uncert
ainty, anxiety and unpredictability make them an instrument to the Narcissist. The victim no longer knows what is true and right, and what is wrong and forbidden. These are recreated for them by the Narcissist. This cripples his judgment and makes him feel like a child constantly insecure and frightened. In the uncertainty and frightening atmosphere, the victim has only one sure thing to cling to, i.e ., the Narcissist himself. Once they start compromising, there is no end of it.
Muhammad sometimes overvalued his potential victims and then completely devalued them. Once he declared that he was the foretold Prophet of the Jews, but afterwards he devalued them completely and condemned them. Same was true for the Christians also. This contradictory behavior of valuation and devaluation of the same people often makes other people nervous. People are worried – is it my turn after them? They suffer from emotional insecurity, an eroded sense of self-worth, fear, stress, and anxiety. They unconsciously try very hard not to upset their leader. In psychology this is called “walking on eggshells” (it means; to watch what you say or do around a certain person because anything might set him off). Gradually, emotional paralysis ensued and the Muslims came to occupy the same emotional wasteland inhabited by their Narcissist Prophet.
This influence remains stable, even when the Narcissist leader is long out of the lives of the followers. Even today, after fourteen centuries of their leader’s death, Muslims cannot see that their beloved Prophet was actually some kind of mafia lord, because they still want to remain in the good-book of Muhammad. They are compromising ever since the birth of Islam.
6.7.4: Muhammad’s Misleading Signals
A Narcissist’s deceitful emotional messages often mislead people around him because he can mimic real emotions artfully. Most people are misled into believing that he is more human than common. As Vaknin (1999, p. 358) wrote, “ Narcissists deceive their environment in more than one way. Even when they express emotions it is because they have discovered the efficiency of this instrument in obtaining Narcissistic supply ”. When the Narcissists display outburst of emotions they are actually putting on a calculated response to obtain a certain result. They do not value warm or caring relationships and are unmoved by things that would upset the normal person, while outraged by insignificant matters. They are bystanders to the emotional life of others, perhaps envious and scornful of feelings they cannot have or understand. At the end, the Narcissists are cold, with shallow emotions, living in a dark world of their own.
Muhammad’s emotional messages were fraudulent and purposeful. He was capable of witnessing or order acts of utter brutality without experiencing a shred of emotion. While visiting the tomb of his mother, Muhammad cried for his long dead mother but Allah did not allow him to pray for her. This was a fake emotion. In reality, Muhammad had an overly complicated relationship with her. He simply could not forgive her. By mimicking real emotions artfully, by shedding few drops of crocodile tears, Muhammad made other people to believe that he was more human than others.
One of the strongest of human emotions is fear – healthy or unhealthy. Fear is good as long as it takes up a protective role, helping a person to rightly recognize and respond cautiously to impending dangers and possible threats. As example, a fear that makes a passerby to wait patiently before crossing a busy road for safety reasons is certainly a healthy fear. The fear of death, which functions to make us alert in dangerous situations, is a very healthy emotion because it helps a person to reason more clearly. But often fear turns unhealthy; it overpowers an individual’s power of reasoning and other positive attributes that make him see things in clearer light. Muhammad based his religion on this unhealthy human weakness – the fear for unknown and unseen.
Muhammad and Allah continually repeated the words, “fear me, fear me, obey me, obey me” in Qur’an. When Muhammad successfully instilled the unhealthy fear in the minds of the Muslims, he snatched their freedom. Allah’s wrath, doomsday, hellfire – all these clever emotional tricks drove them to seek refuge with him. A healthy fear is a healthy life force, but the kind of fear that we see in Islam tramples self-confidence. It is simply not the fear but “addiction to fear”.
Another strong emotion is love. Narcissists know this human weakness very well. When a new member goes to a Narcissist, he experiences a sudden “overflow” of love, as if suddenly he has become the most lovable person in the world. If he is not aware that the Narcissist had set a trap for him, he will be in danger. Gradually he will be locked in the Narcissist’s web and the exit gate will be closed. Initially Muhammad had set such a “love-trap” for the Jews and Christians. With a typical “love bombing”, i.e., his deliberate show of affection or friendship, he tried to elate the Jews and Christians, praised them, their scriptures and their Gods and Prophets. These fake misleading emotions of love were specially forged for the Jews and Christians. Accordingly, Allah became too active and started sending down many verses praising the Jews. But Muhammad’s all attempts to gain the Jews as convert to Islam failed though he was partially successful with the Christians.
All these manipulative faked emotions confuse many people around the Narcissist (Vaknin, 1999, p. 358). For him this is a game and he can spend his entire life getting better at the game. The victims often feel that something is wrong but due to utter confusion cannot tell what went wrong. They even do not understand that in their perplexed condition, they are slowly coming within the narcissistic grip of the manipulative leader.
6.7.5: Pathological Lying
Pathological lying (also called Pseudologia fantastica, mythomania), is one of several terms applied by psychiatrists to the behavior of habitual or compulsive lying. For a Narcissist, telling the lie makes the game more interesting. But while playing this game of deception, others are left in a state of confusion. Since they do this all the time and seldom tell the truth, that makes them pathological liars. With many years of practice, they become very convincing liars. They lie coolly and easily, even when it is obvious they are being untruthful. It is almost impossible for them to be consistently truthful about either a major or minor issue. They lie for no apparent reason, even when it would be easier and safer to tell the truth. It actually makes him feel great when the game becomes more and more cruel. He feels like he is one damn special, distinguished, famous and unforgettable person. He is just an image, not a real person. Muhammad’s claims were very strange. He declared, “ The very first thing Allah Almighty ever created was my soul, first of all things, the Lord created my mind, I am from Allah and believers are from me. Just as Allah created me noble, he also gave me noble character. ” (Sina, 2008, p. 62). Allah declared very generously that He had created the universe for Muhammad (Tabaqat, Vol.1), and gave him an “ exalted standard of character” (Q: 68.4).
All these claims were fabricated in Muhammad’s lie factory. Certainly he did not have a noble character; rather all evidences confirm exactly the opposite. This type of lies of a Narcissist is also called “crazy lying”. Confronting their lies may provoke an unpredictably intense rage or simply a Buddha-like ear-to-ear smile. These plagiarists and thieves are rarely original thinkers and they seldom credit the true originators of ideas. For them, objective truth does not exist. The only “truth” is whatever will best achieve the outcome that meets their needs. When a Narcissist tells a lie, he repeats it often and sticks to it. This is the art of lying; all expert liars and politicians know it.
When Muhammad recounted his tale of ascending to the seventh heaven, many Muslims lost their faith on Muhammad and left him. His closest friend, Abu Bakr, was at first taken aback. He was puzzled; he had two choices either to abandon Muhammad by accepting that he was a fraud, or remain with him by believing his absurd tales. Ibn Ishaq wrote,
Many Muslims gave up their faith. Some went to Abu Bakr and said, ‘What do you think of your friend now? He alleges that he went to Jerusalem last night and prayed there and came back to Mecca.’ Bakr said that they were lying about the Apostle. But they told him that he was in the mosque at t
his very moment telling the Quraysh about it. Bakr said, ‘If he says so then it must be true. I believe him. And that is more extraordinary than his story at which you boggle’ . (Ishaq: 183)
The particular words of Abu Bakr need to be read between the lines. “If he says so then it must be true. I believe him” – it means, Abu Bakr saw some credibility in Muhammad’s absurd story and believed him. This is the power of big lie; there is always certain force of credibility. Muhammad knew it, so was Hitler.
6.7.6: The Method of Projection
To change the victims, the Narcissists often use the method of projection. To understand it better, let us take the example (Hotchkiss, 2003, p. 10) of a Narcissist mother who is conflicted about her own sexual desires. To hide her own inferiority and to inflate her false self, she will call her innocent teenage daughter a sexual pervert when actually the daughter did not even have any experience in sex. The mother repeats her tough words so strongly and so often that a time comes, the young woman is subconsciously forced to accept that label and starts behaving promiscuously. It is as if the daughter is a blank screen on which the mother has projected her unacceptable lust and impressed upon the daughter the immoral character of the mother.