In her papers “Evil as Love and Liberation” and “Fundamentalism, Father and Son and Vertical Desire” Ruth Stein hypthesizes that the violent actions of Mohammed Atta and the suicide bombers on September 11, 2001, were undertaken in a spirit of devotion—based on profound attachment to Allah. Acts of terroristic violence, Stein says, were performed in the name of love.

The term “martyr” derives from the Arabic word “shahid,” meaning “witness.” The martyr bears witness to his love for Allah by killing infidels. As he submits to the will of God by sacrificing his own life, so does the terrorist compel others to submit to the will of God—and to sacrifice their lives.

When the airplane plunged into the ground in Pennsylvania on September 11, the suicide bombers’ last words were, “God is great.” The terrorists gave witness to their belief that God is great—by virtue of their willingness to die and kill for him. The suicide bombers sacrificed their lives for Allah, and took Americans along with them.

“Allah” is a name given to an object or entity that some human beings worship. Other groups of people worship other objects or entities. People may worship a god, an ideology or their own nation. In each instance, people “look up” to the object, conceive of it as all-powerful, and are willing to perform “sacrifices” in the name of this idealized object.

Why do individuals and groups bind their identities to objects conceived as omnipotent? What is the relationship between attachment to an omnipotently conceived object—a god, ideology or nation—and the proclivity toward violence? Why do people commit radical and massive acts of violence in the name of objects that they idealize and worship?

During a meeting of a study group on religious fundamentalism (founded by psychologist Dan Hill), psychoanalyst Donald Moss introduced the term “fungible” to refer to the interchangeability of objects in the psychic lives of groups and individuals. When people attach to an omnipotently conceived object and perform violent acts in its name, a common psychological mechanism may be operative—regardless of the nature of the object worshipped.

People may worship Allah, or America. The Nazis worshipped Hitler and Germany. The Japanese during the Second World War worshipped their Emperor. For many nations in the twentieth century, the ideology of communism became an object of worship. In each case, collective acts of violence were performed by groups in the name of defending or propagating a sacred ideal.

The phrase “Death to the non-believers” conveys the central meaning of collective forms of violence. Members of one group seek to dominate or kill members of another group that do not bow down to the sacred object worshipped by one’s own group. Terroristic violence is intended to compel belief: force members of another group to submit to the same sacred object to which members of one’s own group have submitted.
 

II. Nazism as Religion

Using my knowledge of Hitler, Nazi ideology and the Holocaust as a touchstone, I began studying religious fundamentalism after reading Ruth Stein’s papers. I was surprised to discover that Stein’s findings on Mohammed Atta and the 9/11 suicide bombers were nearly identical to conclusions I had reached on the dynamics of Nazi violence: collective acts of violence grew out of attachment to a beloved or sacred object.

Nazism was a form of religion. Hitler declared, “We do not want to have any other God, only Germany.” Hitler was  a preacher, inspiring his flock to worship the German nation. Deutschland ueber Alles (“Germany Above All”), Hitler explained, was a “profession of faith that fills millions with a strength that is mightier than any earthly might.” Our love for our people, he said, will never falter, and our “faith in this Germany of ours is imperishable.”

The other side of the coin of Hitler’s love for and faith in Germany was anger toward those who—he imagined—did not share his faith. Hitler declared:

We are fanatic in our love for our people. We can go as loyally as a dog with those who share our sincerity, but will pursue with fanatical hatred the man who believes that he can play tricks with this love of ours.

Well before Islamic terrorism became prominent, I was using the phrase “death to the non-believers” to crystallize my understanding of why Hitler felt compelled to exterminate the Jewish race. Hitler conceived of Jews as people who did not worship Germany sufficiently: were unwilling to embrace and surrender to the national community.

Hitler became enraged contemplating the idea that some people sought to avoid sacrificing for Germany. The essence of the Jew, according to Hitler, was precisely his inability or unwillingness to sacrifice. He was incapable of become attached and devoted to a national community.

Bin Laden—like Hitler—felt that everyone had to embrace and worship the object that he embraced and worshipped. There could be no exceptions. Bin Laden stated that—according to the Muslim religion—Allah has “created us for the purpose of worshipping him.” As a corollary to this proposition, Muslims are required by God to punish people who do not worship Allah.

Citing a passage from the Qur’an, Bin Laden urged believers to fight for the cause of Allah and to kill pagans “wherever they are found.” When a believer meets an unbeliever, he said, he is encouraged to “smite the neck” of the unbeliever: to fight those who “believe not in Allah.” The purpose of Jihad is to rouse the believers in order to “restrain the fury of the non-believers.”

According to Hitler, every single German was required to embrace and to serve the German nation. No one was exempt. There “cannot be a single person,” Hitler proclaimed, who “excludes himself from this obligation.” The aim of National Socialism was dictatorship of the “whole people, the community.”

In spite the enormous popularity that National Socialism had achieved, Hitler believed that there still were a few “incurables” who had “never understood the happiness of belonging to this great, inspiring community.” Nazism revolved around eliminating these incurables, “party poopers” who—Hitler imagined—refused to embrace and devote themselves to Germany.

Like Bin Laden, Hitler encouraged followers to “smite the neck” of those who did not bow down to Germany: to kill people who did not believe in Nazism (wherever these people might be found). The Final Solution was a massive act of terroristic violence, the purpose of which was to punish—eliminate—infidels.