Muslims’ Sheep Mentality

Amil Imani

Humans are living information machines, receiving input from both external sources as well as the body, processing it in some fashion, and producing output – our thoughts and behavior. From the moment of birth, parents, siblings, and others play pivotal parts in supplying the input and influencing how it is processed. Diffusing the present dangerous confrontation between Islam and the West demands rational, impartial and cool heads to untangle facts from myth, understand the Muslims’ mindset, and redress any grievances on either side.

The word Islam literally means "submission to the will of Allah." In that regard, a true Muslim has no choice but to do as the Koran dictates. They are told what to eat, what to drink and what to avoid eating or drinking. In other words, a true Muslim must live like a sheep his entire life. Muslims are only permitted by Islam to eat the food offered them by their book; in other words, the food outside of the book is forbidden.

[5:1] O you who believe, you shall fulfill your covenants. Permitted for you to eat are the livestock, except those specifically prohibited herein. You shall not permit hunting throughout Hajj pilgrimage. Allah decrees whatever He wills.

[5:10] As for those who disbelieve and reject our revelations, they are the dwellers of Hell.

A Muslim is, first and foremost, an Ummahist – a citizen of international Islam. It does not matter in what country they live or have become a citizen. First and foremost, they are Muslims. In other words, the law of the land means nothing to them, only the words of their holy book. So, when a Muslim takes the Pledge of Allegiance to serve in the United State military, he is either ignorant of the implication of his pledge or is lying willfully. What Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan did when he killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, hurting 30 others and did not feel any remorse; he only did what was asked of him by his holy book. What seems to be very scary is that we have other Maj. Hasans in our military establishment and also within the civilian community that can snap at any time.

Ignorance of the law is never a valid reason in a court of law, and lying in the process of applying for a federal job is grounds for denying the application and possibly even more severe consequences. Sadly enough, taqqeyh – lying, or dissimulation – is not only condoned, it is recommended to the Muslims in their scripture. Hence, a Muslim can and would lie without any compunction, whenever it is expedient.

[5:77] Say, "O people of the scripture, do not transgress the limits of your religion beyond the truth, and do not follow the opinions of people who have gone astray, and have misled multitudes of people; they are far astray from the right path."

[5:78] Condemned are those who disbelieved among the Children of Israel, by the tongue of David and Jesus, the son of Mary. This is because they disobeyed and transgressed.

The Muslim’s mind is imprinted with authoritarianism, which starts with the supreme authority, Allah, through his one and only prophet, Muhammad, his Caliphs or Imams, and the high-ranking religious divines all the way down to the village clergy. A dangerous feature of the authoritarian personality is the relative lack of independent thinking. This deficiency makes the person highly amenable to manipulation. Islam, by its rigidly authoritarian make up, robs a Muslim of independent thinking to the extent that the believer blindly adopts it as his infallible system of belief. Hence, the religion of Islam is guilty of conditioning masses of people as easily manipulatable instruments in the hands of authority figures.

To Muslims, the goal is everything. As religious fascism, Islam condones any and all means to achieve its goals. The ultimate objective of Islam is the rule of the entire world under the Islamic Ummah – never mind that these life-in-hand soldiers of Allah disagree with one another regarding the Ummah itself and who is going to reign over it. That’s a “family dispute” that they will resolve by their usual favorite method – brute force. Each Islamic sect believes that it has the Prophet and Allah on its side and it will prevail over the other. For now they have to work diligently to achieve the intermediary goal of defeating all non-believers.

There are countless instances that substantiate Muslims’ “End justifies the means” guiding principle. This policy dates back to Mohammad himself. Mohammad repeatedly made peace covenants with his adversaries, only to violate them as soon as he was in an advantageous position to do so. Betrayal, deception and outright lies are fully condoned in furthering the work of Islam. In the present-day world, the work of Islam is defined by a deeply-entrenched and influential clergy who issue fatwas – rulings – that become directives and laws to the faithful.

One of the greatest subtle, yet important differences between the Muslim’s mindset and that of the people in the West is the extent to which Muslims are fatalistic. There is hardly a statement that a Muslim makes without being conditional – conditional on the will of Allah. (Inshallah) “I shall see you tomorrow, Allah willing,” (Inshallah) “You will make it home, Allah willing,” (Inshallah) “Things will work out, Allah willing,” (Inshallah) and on and on and on.

To the Muslim, Allah is on the job – on every job. Allah, with his invisible mighty hand, literally does and runs everything. “Allah’s hand is above all other hands,” adorns every imaginable space in Islamic lands – a telling point about the Muslim’s fatalism and submission to the omnipotent omnipresent hand. If something happens, it is Allah’s will. If it doesn’t, it is Allah’s will. The rank and file Muslim has little will of his own. It absolves him of any and all responsibility. This mentality is in stark contrast with the “take charge” and “can do” mentality characteristic of Americans and others.

People as a group or as individuals are different and none is perfectly healthy psychologically. We all have a loose wheel or two as we travel the bumpy road of life. Yet, most people manage to stay on course most of the time, with perhaps a stop or two at a repair shop of a mental health professional.

Most psychological disorders are exaggerations, deficits or surfeits of the generally accepted norm – whatever the norm may be. When caution, for instance, is practiced past suspicion, then we have paranoia; when reasonable fear is exercised beyond any justification, then there is phobia. The degree and severity of a condition frequently determine the presence or absence of psychopathology.

Muslims share a common Islamic psychological milieu, they are on an Islamic “diet,” whether they live in Islamic lands or in societies predominantly non-Islamic. The psychological condition of any Muslim group or individual is directly dependent on the kind and amount of Islamic diet they consume. The Islamic diet has numerous ingredients – some of which are wholesome, some are dangerously toxic, and some are between the two extremes.

Over the years, the Islamic leaders have found it expedient to feed the masses mainly the toxic ingredients to further their own interests. Individuals and groups, for instance, have used the immense energizing power of hatred to rally the faithful; the cohesive force of polarization to create in-group solidarity; and, the great utility value of blaming others for their real and perceived misfortunes. Jews have been their favorite and handy scapegoats from day one. To this day, as true fascists, like the Nazis, Muslims blame just about everything on the Jews.

Admittedly, the non-Islamic culture is no panacea. It has, however, one outstanding feature that Islamic lacks – it allows for liberty with all its attendants – good, bad, or indifferent. For those who have experienced liberty, no inducement is likely to make them give it up – particularly not the fictional promises of the Islamists that have failed in the past and are doomed to fail even more miserably in the future.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and a pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website at www.amilimani.com.