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Dr. Michael Welner
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‘Crazy’ has
nothing to do with terrorism, psychiatrist says
March 31, 2016
By Mark Ellis
Dr. Michael
Welner, a forensic psychiatrist known for his research on criminal evil, said
it is a mistake to describe Islamist extremists as “crazy.”
“Crazy
has nothing to do with the terrorism we see,” Dr. Welner
told the Clarion Project. “The
infrastructure assembled by large-scale Islamist organizations—Hezbollah,
Hamas, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and others, speaks to the very rational actors, thinkers
and planners involved,” he notes.
Dr. Welner observes their skill level is
noteworthy. “They have succeeded because of highly
functioning, very organized individuals with exceptional people skills and
capable management, administration and military strategy.
Unfortunately, their talents are misdirected toward
evil. “Islamist terrorism is cold-blooded violence. It
is proactive and planned, as opposed to a hot-blooded violence that is reactive
and impulsive. The attacks are carefully crafted. The leaders are selected
based on how their planning resonates with those who finance them,” he
told Clarion Project.
Dr. Welner believes those recruited into terrorism
within the U.S. are following a different course than those overseas.
“In America, a high proportion of those implicated
in Islamist terror plots are either converts or recently became devout. Part of
what drives this psychologically is that the newer conscript feels the need to
prove his bona fides, just as do newer conscripts in hate groups like white
supremacists.”
He says this makes the U.S. prison population
vulnerable to radicalization. “Radical Islam connects with those who are
already alienated from the host country that incarcerated them. For those
ensnared and leave prison as disenfranchised ex-cons, violence is not as taboo
as it would be for less-hardened peers.”
Dr. Welner notes there are many more sympathetic
followers of terrorist organizations on social media than will actually
participate in terror.
“So the challenge becomes, who among the devout
goes the terrorism route?”
He describes the process of radicalization is an
“intimate” one. “It reflects one’s personal relationship with one’s
spirituality. In some instances, a cleric may be involved, but many
self-radicalize because of their own curiosity and find fellow travelers
online.”
Sadly, radical Islam’s dehumanization of
non-believers propels their cause and warped sense entitlement to brutalize.
“This mindset demands that the only understanding
we reach is submission, just like all fascisms before it and since,” he told
Clarion Project.
Dr. Welner says the spectacular nature of their
crimes is rooted in high expectations of themselves for greatness, but they are
often painfully aware of their underachievement.
“The ideology they choose is the bromide
of their disappointment; the enemy they choose the projection of their
shortcomings; and the terrorism they leap into a transcendence they would never
otherwise achieve.”
ISIS recruits often harbor idealistic dreams. “What
ISIS’ recruitment in the U.S. and elsewhere has achieved is the seduction of
idealistic young recruits drawn to utopian religion. The recruits feel good
about themselves, in some cases pursue the ISIS dream with their spouses and
want to be a part of something greater.”
“These are a whole different group from the
hardened, angry, dead-ended ex-cons who have violent histories and, often,
previous drug problems that we’ve seen implicated in terror plots. The San
Bernardino massacre was the birth of ISIS in Americana, reflecting the
organizational signature of how far a couple would go for their faith—indeed
they would die together — and leave their baby an orphan.”
To “treat” someone involved in terrorism or
“de-radicalize” them is problematical. “Like cult treatment, terrorist
treatment is difficult because the patient does not accept treatment willingly.
And how can you “treat” a belief that is shared by one’s physical or social
media peer group?
“Psychiatric treatment for cult survivors
requires isolation from other influencers. Isolation is impossible when you’re
dealing with a widespread community of believers, as is the case with radical
Islam.”
“The results of deradicalization programs are still
actively debated. High-profile failures demonstrate that the programs can be
gamed by the terrorist “patients.” There are some success stories, however, but
not enough transparency is available to allow us to become fully informed as to
whether terrorists have reprogrammed themselves ideologically, become pacifist
or simply matured to other passions,” he told the Clarion Project.
Dr. Welner responded to the claim that the more we
kill Islamist terrorists, the more hate will exist and terrorism will grow. “The claim that the “more we kill, the more they hate us” is
vacuous, as if the Islamists were Tibetan monks set upon by Chinese occupiers.
We are at war because our enemy has acted to murder us and to eliminate a way
of life different from its own.”
“If the enemy uses a religious ideal to
justify killing us, if we do not eliminate that enemy, that ideology will use
its very survival to claim God’s will to protect it in order to continue to
kill us.
“No matter how we as a nation pursue the
Islamist threat, the United States will be portrayed as a devil deserving of
destruction. Therefore, the ‘more we kill, the more they hate us’ premise is
irrelevant; we are hated not because we kill, but because we exist.
For the complete story on the
Clarion Project, go here
INTERNET SOURCE:
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Fighters of ISIS
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://muslimmirror.com/eng/dont-blame-islam-al-qaeda-and-isis-are-products-of-us-and-saudi-imperialism/
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