by Sujit Das
Islam is all about this egoism the Zen master and the Hindu seers had warned us again and again. This is coupled with many destructive thoughts, like; revenge, hate, envy and self-glorification. Every religion has some inherent truth and beauty which Islam lacks completely. No religion other than Islam competes for adherents. Other religions give people what they need spiritually, but Islam demands. Therefore Islam cannot enforce narcissism reducing practices.
8.2: Islam: The Narcissism Epidemic of the Muslims
On September 30, 2005, twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. They were neither works of art by any account nor very amusing. Only one cartoon showed Muhammad’s turban shaped like a bomb. A group of Danish Imams protested, but the Danish Prime Minister took the view that what a newspaper had done was not his business because the freedom of the speech in Denmark meant that newspapers were beyond the control of the government.
Some Imams then took their campaign to condemn the Danish government to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. But they took as their evidence not only those twelve cartoons but three more, including one with Muhammad as a demonic pedophile and one with a pig snout. This was reported in a Danish tabloid Extra Bladet and not denied (Desai, 2007, p. 8). The third fake cartoon was a praying Muslim being raped by a dog. The three extra cartoons were more offensive and more insulting to both Muhammad and Islam than the original twelve cartoons. Clearly, the Imams added them to fuel outrage by giving the Arabs an idea, how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims. However, this controversy led to protests across the Muslim world, some of which escalated into violence (resulting in more than 100 deaths), including setting fire to the Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, storming European buildings, and desecrating the Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, French and German flags in Gaza city.
This is an abnormal behavior. Muslims rioted in far away places such as Nigeria and Turkey, killed innocents and destroyed property, yet they call their religion a peaceful religion. In Islamic countries many Christian churches and Hindu temples are regularly destroyed, Jews are routinely labeled “apes and pigs” in the state-controlled media, and in Saudi Arabia carrying a Bible is forbidden, but still Muslims quote some peaceful verses from the Qur’an to show that there is no compulsion in religion. Why this hypocrisy? If some innocent cartoons wounded the delicate sensibilities of the Muslims, then, in the same way, labeling Jews with offensive terms equally wound the sensibilities of the Jewish community.
The cartoon incident highlights the fact that Muslims cannot be good citizens of any country where another religion and culture is dominant. It means; Muslims cannot be a loyal minority, and as their numbers and strength build up they will demand to impose their Muslim laws and systems on their hosts. In fact the Qur’an instructs them not to live as minorities, but try to take over. Their allegiance is always to the wider world of Islam over any national boundaries.
The cartoon rage was a repetition of the fury unleashed by Salman Rushdie’s 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, and of Pope’s criticism of Muhammad on September 12, 2006. The dying Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran declared in a fatwa that Rushdie and those associated with the publication and distribution of the book should be killed. Following Khomeini’s dictum, a mob attacked the USIS office in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, and huge public demonstrations with ritualistic burning of Rushdie’s novel were arranged from the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to the streets of Bradford, England. As a protest of Pope’s criticism, many churches were burnt down, several Islamic terrorist organizations gave a joint threat to Vatican, and an Italian nun of sixty-five years was killed.
How should we explain such mad furor over cartoons, or works of fiction, or a comment from Pope that so readily seize Muslim sensitivities, and then spill over into the streets with appalling consequences? What is to be made of the cartoon controversy, the Rushdie’s novel and Pope’s comment? And what is the implication, if any, of such conduct on the part of Muslims for the West?
Muslim rage over the minor issues can be explained by Kohut’s psychoanalytic theories on narcissism first published in 1972. According to Kohut; the frustration and suppression of the grandiose self is displayed by means of narcissistic rage which is a result of the shame and fear at being faced with failure. When a Narcissist’s grandiose sense of self-worth is under attack, typically in the form of criticism, he suffers from narcissistic injury. The natural reaction is to rage and pull down the self-worth of others to feel superior to them. By showing rage, he wants to pacify his internal pain and hostility and rebuild his self-worth.
Muslims cannot tolerate even a small criticism of their Prophet. The depiction of Muhammad with a bomb in the turban indicates that Islamic terrorism is closely related to Muhammad (surely it is!). Since Muhammad is the Prophet of all the Muslims, it indirectly points negatively to the Muslims and their religion. It caused narcissistic injury, and hence they raged. By killing more than one hundred innocent people and destroying property in riots everywhere in the world, the Muslims felt superior to others, i.e., non-Muslims.
Narcissistic rage comes in many forms, but all pertain to the same important thing, revenge. When angry Muslims rioted, attacked churches, or issued fatwa on Rushdie’s head, the only thing that was in their mind was revenge. Narcissistic rage is the outcome of shame and fear. The shame is that they follow a Prophet who is more of a criminal and less a Prophet, that all other religions are more spiritual and progressive and logical than their own. The fear is that, their Prophet would be exposed by criticism, that the spiritual bankruptcy of their religion would be discovered. For the very same reason free thought and freedom of expression is not allowed in Islam.
There are many evidences that Muslims are suffering from mass narcissism. By taking the example of Saddam Hussein, Twenge & Campbell commented (2010, p. 266) that much of the Muslim world has already been infected by narcissism. This way, every Muslim is a “mini” Muhammad. The beast of Muhammad is very much alive in the hearts of the Muslims. Whenever it gets a chance, it makes its presence known to the world ferociously, sometimes without any logical provocation.
Paranoia is a common trait of narcissism. It is actually pervasive among normal people and among groups of people. Groups can also be considered to suffer from mental illness. Amongst Muslims there is massive creation of paranoia toward the infidels which originated from Muhammad’s paranoia. Muhammad used to see conspiracies everywhere. Throughout his career, Muhammad addressed the infidels with offensive terms and talked about how they were plotting against him, opposing his religion and persecuting him and his followers. Muslims also see conspiracies everywhere. They “know” that the filthy infidels are always plotting against them, opposing their religion and persecuting them. Any healthy criticism is taken as personal slight. Gradually, their minds turn into a chaotic battlefield of paranoid fear. When Muslim terrorists destroyed twin towers, some Muslims believed that it was the work of Mossad or the CIA. In India, Muslims refuse to allow their children to take polio vaccination because the Hindus have polluted the vaccines. Jews have invented the cartoon show Tom & Jerry because Allah equates them to rats and they want to prove that rats are cute. USA agreed to give militarily support to Israel, because Monica Lewinsky was an agent of Mossad (Razzaque, 2008, p. 45). USA attacked Afghanistan and Iraq to loot their resources. Afghan children are told in Madrassah that Afghanistan is a poor country because of the disproportionate wealth of the Americans. Some of these conspiracy theories are so ridiculous that Muslims often make themselves a laughing stock. But they believe all these nonsense because illogical fear and distrust in instilled in their minds.
Muslims cannot accept any criticism of their faith. Questioning of their beliefs, no matter how trivial, is met with evasiveness, defensiveness, irritability and hostility. This is called persecution complex. Narcissists develop a feeling that they are persecuted by higher powers. Muhammad never had shortage of critics. The
y described him as motivated by a combination of political ambition and sensual lust. Muhammad never engaged in any meaningful debate with them, rather he silenced them by killing them. Exactly same type of persecution complex is observed in Muslims. They are hyper-vigilant and constantly on the lookout for slights. They take every realistic criticism as personal insult. Neither they can question their own faith nor will they allow anyone to do so. Muslims are always eager to prove that Islam is a nonviolent religion, but once the violent verses are shown to them they become furious. Persecution complex can strike anyone, regardless of belief, creed or religion. Once the Muslims start believing that the whole world is against them, they begin to justify any actions by the presumed hostility of the world.
Next topic of discussion is delusional disorder. The patient who is suffering from delusional disorder holds one or more strange fixed beliefs implanted deep inside in his mind. Often vivid hallucinations related to the content of the delusion may be present. He may successfully function in daily life and may not exhibit odd or bizarre behavior aside from these delusions. Common Muslims suffer from delusional disorder like Muhammad. They believe that they will enter paradise only because they are Muslims and all the nonbelievers are destined to hell. How do I know that it really happens, had anyone ever come back from his grave and told us that he had seen Muslims and non-Muslims in their afterlife? How do I know that Muhammad did not lie to propagate his mission? These questions will never arise in Muslim mind. After all, Muhammad was a mentally deranged criminal. How much could he be trusted? When a Muslim transforms himself from a human being to a human bomb, all these questions do not occur in his mind. A Muslim’s delusional disorder has an undue influence on his life. He is oversensitive in his belief, because he has no logical explanation. But he cannot come out of his delusion.
From the very deep bottom of his heart, every Muslim knows that his religion is a violent religion, that Muhammad was an aggressive man, that the real God cannot be unethical, that Islam is a mental prison; but he cannot express himself. So he lies to himself. He knows that something is seriously wrong with his religion, but he is confused. He understands that people around him are not happy with him, but he is helpless. In his mind, he agrees to every accusation of the critics of Islam, but he cannot stop putting his trust in Muhammad. He had succumbed to his mental illness which he had inherited from his Prophet. This is the gift of Muhammad to Muslims.
8.3: The Demonic Recipe of Narcissist Muhammad
Islam is the legacy of a malignant Narcissist. By following Islam, Muslims inherit all the seven deadly sins – shamelessness, magical thinking, arrogance, envy, entitlement, exploitation and bad boundaries – all included in the demonic recipe of Narcissist Muhammad. These sins are deadly because they invade and annihilate the integrity of everyone they touch, and sinful because they destroy the sinner as well. These seven deadly sins not only harm others, but also prevent the Narcissist from developing a real self.
8.3.1: Shamelessness (Bypassed shame)
Shame is a healthy emotion, but people who bypass shame become obsessive which results in low self-esteem and leads to anger and lowliness. Bypassed shame can set up explosive chain reaction, like, acute panic (a shame-fear alternation), resentment (shame-anger alternation, with anger directed out), and guilt (shame-anger sequences, with the anger directed in) (Scheff, 1999, pp. 88, 93). Muslims appear to be “thick-skinned”, but actually they are extremely shame-sensitive. Today being Muslim itself is a shameful act. Deep inside, a Muslim feels pathetic and foolish deserving of mockery and humiliation. Allah repeatedly cursed the infidels, but the infidel world is progressing well; it is the Muslims who are at the lowest people in a society. Two-thirds of world’s poorest people live in Muslim countries. With all their oil-wealth, there is no Muslim nation among the top thirty of the world’s richest nations. Democracy and rule of law is practically nonexistent (Trifkovic, 2002, p. 3). Most of the Muslim nations are like living hell which is one of the reasons Muslims immigrate to more civilized Western nations. Some Muslim nations are so poor that their people will simply die from starvation if USA stops financial aid to them. Though Muslims show cool indifference to all criticisms, all of a sudden they surprise us by reacting – acute panic, resentment or guilt.
We often hear from the Muslim clerics that Islam is in danger. When some progressive Muslims talk about female education, equal rights, drawbacks of Madrassah education, etc, the clerics are in panic. One reason is that they fear to lose their control. They are scared of free thoughts, because if freedom of thought and speech is encouraged, Islam will be exposed. But the second reason is that the bypassed shame changes into panic (a shame-fear alternation). When we talk about reformation of Christianity and Hinduism – another two world religions; Christians and Hindus are very open to logical and constructive criticism. But for Muslims, the bypassed shame vents out as panic.
Violent rage (shame-anger alternation, with anger directed out) is the second explosive chain reaction. The three best examples of this are; as stated before, Danish cartoon, Rushdie’s novel, and Pope’s criticism. All these are shame-based rage. When Muslims feel humiliated, embarrassed, or ridiculed and their already low self-esteem takes a further drop; they rage to cut off these bad feelings.
The third point is guilt, i.e., the shame-anger sequences, with the anger directed to himself, his religion and his Prophet. In this process, the Muslim doubts his Islamic faith but he may not leave Islam immediately. He dives deep into Islamic studies, goes to mosque more frequently, attain more religious seminars and apparently become more devoted to his religion. But all these actions are superficial as if he is trying to trick himself. This is not permanent; sooner or later he stops fooling himself and guilt overcomes him. Ultimately he leaves Islam.
8.3.2: Magical thinking
Magical thinking is one of the hallmarks not only of malignant narcissism, but of many other mental disorders. There is no cognitive logic in magical thinking; the Narcissist just knows it. The same way Muhammad knew that killing, raping, looting and torturing the infidels are all divine acts which satisfied Allah. One part of the Muslim mind is always engaged in magical thinking. As Hotchkiss (2003, p. 10) wrote, “ Magical thinking, exploitive idealization, and the devaluation of others via shame-dumping and belittling are all attempts on the part of the Narcissist to avoid feeling defective and insignificant ”. Magical thinking is one of the most dangerous mind-altering substances.
It explains why the Muslims made it a practice of Jews-bashing. The prosperity of the Jews gives them heartburn. So they inflate their narcissistic balloon by ridiculing the Jews, by labeling them “apes and pigs” or decedents of “monkeys and pigs”. But, what they hardly understand is that in both theory and practice, magic does not conform to reality. Universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws. Today these “monkeys and pigs” are the most educated and most advanced people on the earth (followed by Christians and Hindus). And where do the Muslims stand? They are at the bottommost level and live a pitiful life both in the Islamic world as well as Western world. But in spite of knowing all these facts Muslims cannot come out of their magical thinking. This is abnormal.
Ever since the birth of Islam, this religion had not changed. In spite of that there are many Muslims who believe that Islam can be reformed like Christianity and Judaism. In fact the Shiaas of Iran even have a “Hidden Imam” who will come back any day now and set things right.
Muslims often take childlike pleasure glorifying the golden age of Islam, which is actually a myth. Muslim Ummah was equally backward during those days as it is today. Spencer (2005, p. 91) reported that there is no historical proof to support the idea that Islam inspired a culture which outstripped others. Tisdall wrote (2005, p. 91), “ No great civilization, no scientist of note, no renowned school of philosophy, has ever arisen on purely Mohammedan ground”. He believed that even several Muslim scholars had accepted this fact. Islam had never encouraged scientific know
ledge. The only knowledge it accepts is Qur’anic knowledge. Diderot (Gunny, 1996, p. 168) stated that during Caliph al-Mamun, people were heard shouting for his death because he had fostered science at the expense of the “holy ignorance” of the faithful believers.
With so much glorification of illiteracy and dislike for science, there is little doubt that Islam’s golden age was a clever myth. It is infidel’s education, science, technology and endurance, based on which the human civilization had spread everywhere including Islamic world itself on which the Muslim community has no contribution. The sheikhs of Islam could not do anything better than stand silently as spectators to infidel’s prosperity. Trifkovic (2002, p. 196) concluded, “Whatever flourished, it was not by reason of Islam, it was in spite of Islam.” The glorious past of Ummah is a wishful thinking of the Muslims. When they look at the infidel prosperity, it is their challenge to find a way to stay pumped up inside in order to hold these harsh realities at bay.
Magical thinking is very common amongst children. There is no harm in it for them because they are in a growing stage. They create imaginary worlds while playing and start knowing the differences between fantasy and reality by the age three or four, though they usually still believe (with adult encouragement) in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or similar many. But when the adults cannot emerge from this stage, we know something is wrong with them. Mental dysfunction of Muslims should not be taken lightly because they not only could harm themselves and their society but to those around them. Can we ignore the magical thinking of the suicide bomber and his concrete belief in Allah’s reward? Reality is the most potent check on runaway magical thoughts and if we want to stop Islamic terrorism we have no other way but to fight Muslim’s magical thinking with reality.