Denying Islamic terrorism is the real delusion.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
There’s hardly a Muslim terrorist attack committed by a single perpetrator in Europe or America in the last five years that the authorities and the media haven’t tried to spin as mental illness.
Both Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the Syrian Muslim mass killer who shot up a Boulder supermarket, and Faisal Akram, who took a Texas temple hostage to secure the release of ‘Lady Al Qaeda’, had their attacks blamed on mental illness.
But France continues to lead the world in whitewashing Muslim terrorism as mental illness.
When Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish kindergarten director, was murdered by her Muslim neighbor while shouting, “Allahu Akbar”, the authorities gave her antisemitic killer a pass because his pot smoking had supposedly brought on a “psychotic” episode.
The Halimi murder had strong echoes of the previous killing of a Jewish DJ by a Muslim killer where the expert shrink had insisted that “it is not an anti-Semitic act but an act of delirium”
When Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, an ISIS Muslim terrorist, drove a truck into a Bastille Day celebration, ran over as many people as he could, and exchanged fire with police until he was killed, his family and the media insisted that he was mentally ill. “Nice Attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel Wasn’t a Jihadist,” an NBC News headline blared even though Bouhlel had been collecting ISIS material and the Islamic terror group took responsibility for the attack.
“This is absolutely not an act of terrorism,” a French prosecutor insisted after another Muslim man rammed into a crowd in Dijon while shouting, “Allahu Akbar” and announced that he did so for the “children of Palestine.” The prosecutor also claimed that he had no religious motives.
These weren’t random decisions. Rather French authorities have been trying to reclassify Islamic terrorism as a psychological problem in much the same way that the Obama administration had deliberately reoriented and destroyed counterterrorism in the United States.
Former French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb had taken to claiming that a third of terrorists have “psychological issues”. This worldview is reflected by France’s FSPRT master list of Islamic Jihadists which serves as the key database for fighting domestic terrorism in France.
Now the Macron government is trying to rewire Europe’s counterterrorism the same way.
A recent memo from France to the Council of the European Union argues that the “Jihadist threat is evolving” to become “independent from terrorist organizations” and that the perpetrators only have “a tenuous or inexistent link to the radical movement” and suffer from “psychological instability or even mental disorders.”
Additionally, the French memo blames the victims of Islamic terrorism by arguing that the terrorists are triggered by the “the extremely sensitive nature of the notion of blasphemy” which can cause Muslims who are “outside of the jihadist sphere of influence to carry out attacks.”
Within a few paragraphs the French memo to the EU has managed to dismiss the entire idea that Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other Islamic terrorist groups are relevant, then the existence of Islamic terrorism as a whole, reducing it to a question of mentally ill non-terrorists who are triggered by “blasphemy” so that their brutal attacks are really the fault of their non-Muslim victims.
As an example, the French memo to the EU lists the brutal beheading of Samuel Paty, a French teacher, by a Muslim refugee furious over his use of Mohammed cartoons as a teaching tool.
President Emmanuel Macron, at the time, had appeared at the scene and blasted the horrifying murder as “a typical Islamist terrorist attack”.
“They won’t win,” he had declared.
But the EU memo suggests that like previous French presidents, Macron was playing to the crowd, and has no intention of fighting Islamic terrorism, instead he seeks to redefine it.
France currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union giving it even more authority than usual and the memo concludes by asking member states to agree to a “six-monthly EU threat assessment in the field of counterterrorism.”
What this amounts to is the Halimi case writ large all across Europe.
Reclassifying Muslim terrorism as mental illness has been a longstanding project of the terrorism deniers. It’s been especially popular in France which due to its laïcité secularism is even more unable and unwilling to grapple with the theological motivations of Islamic terror.
The ‘medicalization’ of terrorism is convenient because it transforms an external threat into an internal social problem which is exactly what the Europeans had been doing with Islamic terrorism for generations. Muslim terrorists can appear paranoid, delusional, and unstable, but psychiatric standards based around a 21st century European middle class urban population are a particularly poor fit for gauging what is normal for a culture entirely outside that worldview.
Whether any Muslim terrorists can indeed be diagnosed as suffering from mental illess is as relevant to the nature of the beast as the number of schizophrenic SS or NKVD killers. Totalitarian movements, whether it’s the kamikazes of Imperial Japan or the suicide bombers of Hamas, often draw on mentally unstable killers who are readier to die for the cause.
But to say that Islamic terrorism is the product of mental illness is in its own way as delusional as reducing WWII to an etiology of the possible mental illnesses that Hitler or Stalin could be diagnosed with. Insane people participating or even leading totalitarian movements doesn’t mean that the problem is mental illness or that it can be solved by taking a few pills a day.
The Macron government’s attempt to shift the emphasis from a religious war to psychological screening is the true delusion here. Releasing Islamic terrorists, as the French government has done, while insisting that they go to therapy sessions is a refusal to grapple with the root causes of immigration, migration, and the ‘mosqueization’ of French cities by Islamic movements.
The Texas temple terrorist attack showed us that the European failure to police its Islamic terror threat isn’t just a problem for Europeans. From the Hamburg cell at the heart of the September 11 attacks to the latest Texas attack, Europe remains a springboard for attacks on America.
And if France succeeds in imposing its medicalized notion of terrorism on the European Union, it will be that much harder to keep it from further corrupting American counterterrorism.
“In our fight against Islamist terrorism, we will never give in,” President Macron had previously promised. The EU memo looks like a Vichy exercise for finding an excuse to surrender.
Fred Alan Medforth says
French politician indicted after criticising Islamism
https://medforth.biz/french-politician-indicted-after-criticising-islamism/
Michael Copeland says
France destroying democracy: a politician not being allowed to raise a subject.
mortimer says
Macron is not qualified to ‘reclassify’ an entire religious ideology as a mental illness. That is absurd.
Macron cannot ‘reclassify’ 14 centuries of Islamic history as mental illness either. Jihadism is perfect, canonical Islam, rather than an aberration from or deviant form of Islam.
Lavéritétriomphera says
“France’s Macron Tries to Reclassify Muslim Terrorism as Mental Illness”
I am a bit caught on that, because Macron is not a doctor and he knows it.
Michael Copeland says
“In the face of Islam, France has lost all ability to think, rule and act. It submits and is about to submit again.”
Boualem Sansal, famous Algerian writer
https://rmx.news/article/the-future-of-france-civil-war-and-then-the-islamist-dictatorship-says-famed-algerian-writer/
Michael Copeland says
Exposing how wide of the mark he is, Macron said this:
“Islamist separatism….This is what France is fighting against — designs of hatred and death that threaten its children — never against Islam. We oppose deception, fanaticism, violent extremism. Not a religion.”
https://amp.ft.com/content/8e459097-4b9a-4e04-a344-4262488e7754?__twitter_impression=true
James Lincoln says
Michael Copeland,
So Macron said:
“…We oppose deception, fanaticism, violent extremism. Not a religion.”
But “deception, fanaticism, violent extremism” is part of plain-vanilla islam.
But you knew that already.
Fred Alan Medforth says
35 people live under police protection in France because they were critical of Islam
https://medforth.biz/35-people-live-under-police-protection-in-france-because-they-were-critical-of-islam/
Fred Alan Medforth says
France: Aurélie, who miraculously survived 59 stabbings by Mohamed, who was ” hurt in his pride as an Algerian “, must pay the €32,000 outstanding rent of her ex-life partner – His lawyer warns against Islamophobia
https://medforth.biz/france-aurelie-who-miraculously-survived-59-stabbings-by-mohamed-who-was-hurt-in-his-pride-as-an-algerian-must-pay-the-e32000-outstanding-rent-of-her-ex-life-partner-his-lawyer-warns-agai/
Istvan Vogel says
So how many millions of people are there in this world suffering from the same mental illness? Or is it billions?
mortimer says
Agree with I.Vogel. Over a billion Muslims are self-brainwashed.
Islamic fanaticism is classified‘overvalued ideation’ by psychologists. The Nazis and Stalinists also had ‘overvalued ideation’ when they wished to murder anyone of a different background or with different ideas to their own.
Definition: overvalued idea is a false or exaggerated belief sustained beyond logic or reason but with less rigidity than a delusion.
Clinical Definition of Overvalued Ideation (Poor Insight) is conceptualized as the midway point between rational identification of obsessional thinking (intrusive ego-dystonic thoughts; Eisen et al., 1998; Insel & Akiskal, 1986; Kozak & Foa, 1994; Neziroglu et al., 1999) and delusionality (firmly held false beliefs with a lack of insight into the irrationality of the content of the belief). Traditionally, obsessions and delusions were viewed as dichotomous; however, currently it is believed that beliefs are better conceptualized on a continuum. A variety of disorders, such as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), anorexia nervosa, hypochondriasis, schizophrenia, and delusional disorder, are among those that could be considered on this continuum. The BABS is based on this idea.
-An unreasonable, strongly held belief or idea. Such a belief is beyond the norm of beliefs held or accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture.
-overvalued idea: a false or exaggerated belief sustained beyond logic or reason but with less rigidity than a delusion, also often being less patently unbelievable.
dominant idea one that controls or colors every action and thought.
-fixed idea: a persistent morbid impression or belief that cannot be changed by reason.
Conclusion: Muslims maintain a self-imposed, rigid and unquestioning acceptance of absurd ideas that defy common sense, science, logic and historical facts. Muslims flee from discussions in which they are asked to provide PROOF to support the absurdities in Islam, for instance, flat earth, sun setting in a muddy spring, Allah’s incorrect addition of fractions, etc.
mortimer says
For President Macron, let us spell it out: ISLAMISM IS TRADITIONAL ISLAM.
– ‘Radical Islam is traditional Islam’ – Fr Henri Boulad SJ (expert on Islamism)
– “L’islamisme radical qui se déchaîne en Syrie et en Irak (ISIS) n’est pas une déviation ou une perversion du véritable islam, dont l’orientation serait uniquement spirituelle et religieuse, c’est de fait l’islam le plus traditionnel”, lâche le Père Henri Boulad.
– “The radical Islamism that has been loosed in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) is not a deviation or a perversion of an alleged ‘true Islam’, whose orientation is purely spiritual and religious. In fact, it is the most traditional form of Islam.” – Fr. Henri Boulad SJ.
………………………………………………..
Radical = from the root, going to the origin, essential, thoroughgoing, original, inherent, primal, underlying, foundational, uncompromising, entire
Michael Copeland says
“No difference between Islam and Islamic radicalism, its a danger to all religions.
Islam is a danger to all religions in this world.”
Yati Narsinghanand
https://www.opindia.com/2021/04/yati-narsinghanand-saraswati-dasna-temple-interview-islam/
mortimer says
Jihadism Summary
Jihadism is the ideology that claims that all Muslims are 1) required to conduct jihad to the extent of their ability and 2) that conducting jihad is the most important work of a Muslim. Jihadism is actually a core teaching of Islam that is codified in Sharia law, and thus, jihadism is authentic, mainstream, canonical Islam, rather than a deviation or aberration or fringe phenomenon.
In spite of mainstream Islam’s canonized endorsement of jihadism, most Western elites and politicians are misinformed about this. They are under the false assumption that jihadism is a deviation from standard, canonical Islam, but nothing is further from the truth. Jihadism is endorsed by all branches of Islam to a stronger or lesser degree. Jihadism is based on the words of Allah, the words of Mohammed, and the words of Islam’s classical scholars.
Koran 9.28, 29 & 33 specify that the purpose of jihadism is the emolument of Muslims. The 9th chapter of the Koran permanently ends pagans approaching the Kaaba as visitors. The Meccans complained they would lose much of their income from the lost, lucrative tourist business from pagans. ‘Allah’ then explains that the Muslims may now replace this lost tourist income by going out to rob the pagans and sell them as slaves. Extortion and slave-trading will enrich the Meccans from now on. Thus, jihad is a legalized piracy according to the Koran.
Qur’an 9:28—O ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean; so let them not, after this year of theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque. And if ye fear poverty, soon will Allah enrich you, if He wills, out of His bounty, for Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
Qur’an 9:33—It is He Who hath sent His Messenger with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, to prevail it over all religion, even though the Pagans may detest (it).
Jihadism is not benign for non-Muslims, but it is standard, canonical Islam. The Koran does command Muslims to give alms to charity, but none of that charity money may be spent on non-Muslim kafirs and some of the charity actually goes to fund jihad attacks against non-Muslims. Islamic charity is a threat to kafirs.
Thus, Islam has nothing in it that is benign or beneficial to non-Muslims. Non-Muslims are sources of revenue for Muslims, according to the Koran. Whether enslaved individually as personal slaves, or enslaved as subjugated peoples, the kafirs are considered dirty and unworthy to be equal partners with Muslims, thus Muslims should always be in charge of everything in a Sharia society.
Michael Copeland says
UK Prime Ministers from Blair to May were advised by serial liar Tariq Ramadan.
He had his own misleading usage of words:
“…the global message of Islam which is ‘Spread peace wherever you are’.”
https://gatesofvienna.net/2022/01/peace-and-translating-tariq/
Westman says
Tomorrow’s LeMonde headline, “Macron announces an expansion of mental health facilities”.
No?
Then Macron knows quite well, as does French media, that they are playing it safe from radical Islamists with “strawman” misdirection. They haven’t forgotten Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan Nightclub murders.
They live in fear while projecting hubris; watching the French society diluting into a corrupted remnant language, its history fading, and its monuments abraded.
Will Islamists eventually sell the Arc de Triomphe to China?
libertyORdeath says
“Muslim terrorists can appear paranoid, delusional, and unstable, but psychiatric standards based around a 21st century European middle class urban population are a particularly poor fit for gauging what is normal for a culture entirely outside that worldview.”
This is one of the most insightful statements on this topic that I have ever read. Imagine a psychiatrist from Brussels or Oslo assessing one of the Fulani herdsmen from Nigeria or a farmer from Afghanistan. It would be IMPOSSIBLE to diagnose the individual as having “mental issues” as he or she had understood the term for the duration of their career. This is only exacerbated by the diametrically opposed basic worldviews that are held and observed by each party. There is a different set of standards to determine who is “mentally unstable” in each context.
Regardless, I personally believe that even these doctors know that what they tell the court or public is a lie meant to lessen the chances of seeming uninclusive, or God forbid, racist or “islamophobic”. We have already seen how far people will go with this goal in mind from the rape gangs in the UK and the explosion of muslim migrant crime in mainland Europe. It’s probably not some carefully crafted lie by some cabal of globalist deep-state actors, but the pressure put upon these doctors and public officials produces the same outcome as the conspiracy.
tim gallagher says
I find this idea of calling evil Muslim terrorism a “mental illness” absolutely ridiculous. Inhuman evil should be called exactly what it is, evil. I suppose that Nazism and all its evil crap will also soon be reclassified as a “mental illness” and not the inhuman evil that it really is. Mass murderous Communism, with all those millions of people it has slaughtered also will be considered to be a “mental illness”.
john smith says
Spot on Tim.
tim gallagher says
Yes, john, it is a ridiculous idea. They will end up with the idea that there is no such thing as evil at all. Any evil behaviour is merely a manifestation of mental illness. To my mind, there are some good Muslims, but it is in spite of Islam, but islam is just downright barbaric and evil. That is facing up to the truth.
Jerry says
It will be difficult to accommodate 1.75 bn in a Lunatic Asylum.
tim gallagher says
Well said, Jerry, a clever, witty comment. Yes, they will certainly have to build a hell of a lot of lunatic asylums alright to cope with all the “mentally ill” Muslim terrorists.
nicholas tesdorf says
Islam is a large example of ‘Mass Formation’. It is long-lasting but fragile and held in place by violence.
Michael Copeland says
The fragility is exposed where there is internet access, and adherents are leaving.
“”They’re Leaving Islam by the Masses!” (Panicking over Apostasy)”
https://youtu.be/w8vMjcCsALU
James Lincoln says
Excellent video link, Michael.
Great to have muslims leave islam – worldwide – but the percent of muslims in Western countries continues to increase.
Peter WF says
Why are so many men migrating to the west? Have a look at https://statisticstimes.com/demographics/countries-by-sex-ratio.php and checkout the bottom of the list for the many men per 100 women.
Further, search “world map average IQ” and “world map marry first cousins” and you’ll find a lot of inbreeding in some countries. That inbreeding creates some dreadful results e.g. https://wentworthreport.com/2017/07/21/effects-of-centuries-of-extreme-inbreeding-among-muslims-low-iq-violence-and-terrorism/ video bottom of the page.
Westman says
How can the excess number of men be explained in Islamic nations? Are multiple wives counted as one female in Oman, UAE, etc? I’d hate to think it was abortion and infanticide – the very thing Muhammad claimed Islam stopped.
Are you sure about this source?
The brain drain (brightest leaving for the West) on the ME has been happening since WWII so it might be a large factor in some backwardness. I can’t buy into the low IQ thing without some provenance on the claimed statistics. Admittedly, my experience with Muslims has been in the US where I haven’t noticed anything abnormal, just as intelligent as typical Americans.
gregbeetham says
How long will the nincompoops who are in charge get away with this misdirection? They are putting their populations at extreme risk while squandering resources barking up the wrong tree.
Is this a deliberate smoke screen or an admission of incompetence? Or is it just plain cowardice? Do they grasp the fact that Islam is fundamentally committed to the destruction of our civilization? It appears not because they continually make allowances for Muslims to ignore our laws and we retreat from Muslim enclaves within our own countries.
What we need to do is make sure our laws are absolutely enforced, regardless of any Muslim hysteria in response, that way we should be able to convince them that the West is not the place for Muslims and they should leave of their own accord and go back to their place of origin.
Kuffar says
But, aren’t all muslims mentally ill?
somehistory says
mozlums are psychopaths which is not a “mental illness,” but a personality disorder.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/psychopathy
“Psychopathy. Psychopathy is defined as a mental (antisocial) disorder in which an individual manifests amoral and antisocial behavior, shows a lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, expresses extreme egocentricity, and demonstrates a failure to learn from experience and other behaviors associated with the condition.”
If macron was speaking from this perspective, he might get more traction, as islam promotes psychopathy by its very teachings.
However, using this in order to blame the victims….who may say something a mozlum doesn’t like…and make an excuse as to **why** this terrorism can’t be nipped in the bud, is criminal.
If there was some other entity that was causing all of its members to rape and murder, would it be called a mental illness and excused? or is it only for islam?
James Lincoln says
somehistory,
Yes, a psychopath has a personality disorder.
And any “treatment” has had very limited success.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wicked-deeds/201610/psychopathy-clinical-diagnosis
somehistory says
Thank you, James.
A “personality” can be modified by the person himself, but that person has to want to change. Guess not too many psychopaths don’t like the way they are.
Michael Copeland says
Video: an imam instructs…..
“We follow blindly. You better follow blindly. You need to follow him blindly. “Blindly” means you don’t use your brain. (1.16) You may use your brain to understand what he said, but if you want to use your brain to reject what he said then you don’t need your brain any more”.
We Follow M0hammed Blindly (video)
https://ne-np.facebook.com/DoctrineApologetics/videos/we-follow-m0hammad-blindly/636122597445309
somehistory says
thanks for that, Michael Copeland.
OLD GUY says
You all most have to be mentally challenged to not recognize that Islam is an ideology of world domination. These acts of terror are being orchestrated by islamic leaders. They want to create fear and disrupt the society of the host countries. that made the mistake of allowing islam to infiltrate their borders. Islamophobia is a coverup as well as the claim that these terrorist are mentally ill.