[nw_arizona_granny]

This is not only interesting, but also well written.

Part One:

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Juan Cole * Informed Comment *

Thoughts on the
Middle East,
History, Islam, and
Religion

Juan Cole is
Professor of
History at the
University of
Michigan


Presented at "Genocide and Terrorism:
Probing the Mind of the Perpetrator,"
Yale Center for Genocide Studies, New
Haven, April 9, 2003.


Al-Qaeda’s Doomsday Document and
Psychological Manipulation

Juan Cole

In this paper I present a fresh reading
and analysis of the first part of the
so-called “Doomsday Document,” found
in the luggage of September 11
hijacker Muhammad Atta. It follows on
two other close readings, offered by
Hassan Mneimeh and Kanaan Makiya,
and by Bruce Lincoln. My question here
is slightly different from the ones they
asked of the document. I am asking
here how the hijackers misused various
techniques of Islamic spirituality to
achieve a psychological state of mind
in which it was possible for them to
commit mass murder and their own
suicides. On reflection, then, it seems
to me that the text was probably
authored by Muhammad Atta himself,
the only Egyptian on the hijacking
team. Another possibility is that the
document was pulled together from
instructions by more than one person,
some of them not native Arabic
speakers, and not carefully edited by
an Arab with a good style.

It is worth noting that I have been
wrestling with this text since the FBI
released it, but have found working
with it to be extremely difficult on an
emotional level. Like most Americans,
I was traumatized by September 11
and by the enormity of the crime
against humanity then perpetrated. As
a friend of Muslims and an admirer of
Islam as a religion, I also had great
difficulty coming to terms with the was
in which such an act could have come
out of even a fringe cult within Islam.

On a first reading, I had been struck by
what seemed to me Sufi emphases,
coming out of Islamic mysticism. I
suspected a South Asian or Afghan
influence on the Arab jihadis gathered
in southern Afghanistan. But I have
concluded that the text exhibits not so
much Sufism as simple common Islamic
spirituality, if put to monstrous uses.
Even the Muslim Brotherhood strain of
Islamic fundamentalism did not
explicitly reject Sufi figures such as
al-Ghazali, and there was a Sufi tinge
to some Brotherhood texts and
practices. This would have carried over
to the radical splinter groups, al-Jihad
al-Islami and al-Gama`a al-Islamiyyah,
and Atta almost certainly was affiliated
with one or the other of these. Only
four of the five Arabic texts have been
released by the FBI, with the first page
unavailable. Page 2, the first of the
released pages, contains 15
instructions aimed at preparing the
hijackers psychologically for their
action on the night before they were to
carry it out.

The second page begins with a
hadith or saying attributed to the
Prophet Muhammad, “One of the
companions said, “The messenger of
God commanded that it be read before
a raid, so we have read it, and have
gained booty, and remained safe and
sound.” The prophetic saying or hadith
refers to several elements important to
this letter, including the idea that
conducting raids against the enemy is
Koranically sanctioned (even though
the enemy that concerned the Koran
was the pagan Meccans, not US
Christians and Jews). It ties success
and safety in this enterprise to reading
or reciting holy verses. Recitation is
thus essential to establishing the set
of mind and the spiritual conditions
conducive to success. Although the
saying refers to gaining booty, the
Koranic Surah of the Spoils (al-Anfal)
actually insists that booty is not the
central reason for raids, saying “The
spoils belong to God and the
Messenger; so fear you God and set
things right between you, and obey you
God and His Messenger, if you are
believers.” (K. 8:2). That is, the “raid”
(ghazwah) is supposed to be a selfless
act, even if spoils are taken.

The letter now turns to
preparations for the actual operation.
This section is entitled, “The Last
Night.” The raiders are directed to
“vow to accept death.” The word for
‘vowing to accept,’ tabayu`, is related
to the term bay`ah, which means
“giving fealty to,” used to describe
giving allegiance to a caliph or leader
of the Muslim community. It is pledge
of loyalty, but instead of being given to
the leader of Islam, here it is proffered
to death itself. Muslim Brotherhood
founder Hasan al-Banna had written,
“Always intend to go for Jihad and
desire martyrdom. Prepare for it as
much as you can.” Then, the document
advises, the hijacker must “renew
admonition” (tajdid at-tanbih). The
reference is to an admonition of the
base self (an-nafs), which Muslim
mystics saw as the primary impediment
to undertaking selfless acts of
worship. In this document, the carnal
self is the enemy of the vow to die,
selfishly seeking to hang on to life, and
so must be vanquished. Admonishing
the self is the way to contain it and
remain true to the death vow.
The raider is then directed to shave the
extra hair on his body, to perfume
himself, and to ritually wash himself.
Instruction 2 is merely practical, saying
that the raider should know the plan
well “from every angle.” Instruction 3
reverts to mindset. The raider must
read two chapters of the Koran, “The
Spoils” and “Repentance.” He must
meditate on their meaning and on the
rewards God has promised in them to
martyrs. This immersion in key sacred
texts is important to attaining the
mindset of the martyr, to thinking of
oneself as already dead and preparing
to receive the delights of divine
recompense. The Spoils was revealed
after the battle of Uhud between the
pagan Meccans and the Muslims of
Medina in 625, in which a small Muslim
force of 700 defeated a much larger
attacking army. The general context is
thus the Muslim raids on and wars
against the Meccans (there were 70
raids and 3 major wars). Uhud came
after the Battle of Badr. The Surah of
Spoils thus situates the Twin Towers
and Pentagon raids in Islamic history
for the al-Qaeda cult. It mapped the
United States onto Pagan Mecca. Both
had superior military force and both
were extremely wealthy commercial
centers. The earlier Battle of Badr had
aimed at interfering in the Meccan
caravan trade as a way of reducing
their material superiority over Medina.
September 11, which likewise struck a
commercial target, was envisaged as
the first of a three-part attack,
according to John Walker Lindh, the
first of which was executed on
September 11. The second would
“bring the US to its knees,” and the
third would “finish it off.”

The Surah of Repentance (K. 9)
distinguishes between idolaters who
had made a covenant with Muhammad
and those who had sought to wipe out
Islam. With regard to the second
group, 9:5 says “Then, when the sacred
months are drawn away, slay the
idolaters wherever you find them, and
take them, and confine them, and lie in
wait for them at every place of
ambush.” The way of thinking that
allowed the hijackers to apply this to
the US is highly abstract and
unnuanced. Did it really not matter
that Americans are Christians and
Jews, not “idolaters”? That these
verses referred to a historical battle
with Meccans, not to a twenty-first
century cultural struggle? And what of
the verse that follows 9:5, “But if they
repent, and perform the prayer, and
pay the alms, then let them go their
way; God is All-forgiving,
All-compassionate. And if any of the
idolaters seeks of thee protection,
grant him protection . . .” What
opportunity would the “troops” in the
Twin Towers have had to “seek
protection” or “repent” (the whole point
of the Surah)? The hijackers
convinced themselves that they were
seventh-century Muslim raiders
defending the “Medina” of the Muslim
world against aggressive American
Meccans soldiers, who were determined
to wipe out true Islam. Their
comportment and techniques were
therefore those of the successful raider
against a superior and deadly enemy.

Instruction 3 returns to the
battle with the carnal soul. The night
before action, the raider must remind
the base self (tadhkir an-nafs) to listen
and obey. The raider is warned that he
will encounter “decisive turning-points”
such that for his soul to listen and
obey is absolutely crucial. An internal
dialogue is suggested between the
raider’s determined rational self and
his carnal soul: “Train your base self,
make it understand, convince it, and
goad it on to this end.” The base self
is depicted almost as a brute animal
that can be trained to do as it is told
with sufficient effort, evoking the
techniques and terminology of the
Islamic tradition of piety. For Sufis,
“training” (riyadah) of the carnal
involved deliberate acts of self-denial.
The Muslim Brotherhood tradition in
Egypt had not, unlike the Salafis,
entirely rejected Sufi ideas. Al-Banna
was an admirer of the great medieval
Sufi thinker Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. He
wrote, “Strive hard against your own
soul until it is under your full control.
Lower your gaze, control your
emotions, overcome your sexual urge,
and elevate it via means that are
decent and lawful.” An early
Brotherhood member told a Sufi
organization, “The internal composition
of the Muslim Brotherhood was in
certain aspects like that of your sufi
community. We used to live together
for forty days doing dhikr [repetition of
verses] and learning jurisprudence . .
.” The Muslim Brotherhood and its
offshoots, such as the al-Jihad
al-Islami of Ayman al-Zawahiri, thus
continued to use terminology that
would be recognizable in a medieval
Sufi “Manual for Adepts.” They
extracted this terminology, however,
from its original context in Sufi
brotherhoods and mystical shaykhs or
leaders.

The author of the document now
quotes from the Surah of Spoils, 8:46,
“And obey God, and His Messenger,
and do not quarrel together, and so
lose heart, and your power depart; and
be patient; surely God is with the
patient.” This verse helps show why
this chapter of the Koran is so
important to the hijackers. They take
from it key psychological cues,
stressing forbearance, group unity, and
infinite patience, a patience that
conjures the presence of God Himself.
In the small group interactions they
had while pursuing flight training and
leading up to September 11, there
must have been many petty quarrels
and short tempers. Some of that
pressure was relieved by exercising at
the gym or drinking in bars and strip
clubs. But constantly turning to verses
like 8:46 was another way of
maintaining group unity and individual
composure.

The fifth instruction concerns
staying up late at night and engaging
in fervent prayer for victory and God’s
help in accomplishing their task, and in
keeping them hidden. The custom of
tahajjud or after-midnight prayers is
important to the traditions of Muslim
piety and mysticism. A prophetic
saying narrated by Muslim goes, “Every
night, when the last third of it remains,
God, our Sustainer, the Blessed, the
Superior, descends to the lowest
heaven saying, ‘Is there anyone to ask
Me so that I may grant him his
request? Is there anyone to invoke Me
so that I may respond to his
invocation? Is there anyone seeking My
forgiveness so that I may forgive him?’
” Al-Banna wrote, “Always be
conscious of God; remind yourself of
the Hereafter and prepare for it. Be
determined and aspire to seek His
pleasure. Bring yourself closer to God
by performing extra night prayers
(tahajjud) and fasting at least three
days every month.” Of course, staying
up to the “last third” of the night is no
easy task, and apparently coffee first
became popular in concentrated form
as a drug used by Yemeni and then
Ottoman Sufis trying to stay up late for
the especially blessed night prayers.
In order to maintain a liminal
consciousness committed to suicide
and mass murder, the hijackers may
well have kept themselves
sleep-deprived, praying into the small
hours of the morning, and then getting
up for flight school or other activities.
Certainly, they were advised to do so
on their last night. The activity of
praying, chanting and reciting through
the night would aid in the
auto-hypnosis necessary to maintaining
their self-image as martyrs vowed to
die.

The sixth instruction
underlines the importance of constant
internal recitation of sacred phrases,
something analogous to the mantra in
Hindu mysticism. Whereas Sufi orders
developed their own phrases for
constant repetition, called dhikr, the
Salafi influence on author of this
document is underlined by the
assertion that the best phrases for in
constant repletion are those drawn
from the Koran itself. Al-Banna himself
had compiled a short book called
“Selections” (al-Ma’thurat) of Koran
verses and prophetic sayings related to
the practice of dhikr. In another book,
he wrote, “Partake in much
remembrance (dhikr) both of the heart
and the tongue and recite the
renowned supplications of the
Prophet.” There is at least a slim
relationship in some sources between
dhikr and jihad. The “greater jihad” of
the Sufis like al-Ghazali, which involved
conquest of the carnal soul, was
considered by them to be greatly aided
by the technique of dhikr. It is
possible that a suicide/mass murder
operation like this one was considered
by al-Qaeda to combine the virtues of
both the greater (spiritual) and lesser
(military) jihads, and that therefore the
techniques appropriate to the former
should be applied to the latter.
Further, there is a widely cited hadith
or prophetic saying that a person who
engages in dhikr is better than a
mujahid or a holy warrior. A Sunni
Encyclopedia tells us that the medieval
jurist “Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (1989
ed. 11:251) explained that what is
meant by dhikr in Abu al-Darda's
narration of the primacy of dhikr over
jihad is the complete dhikr and
consciousness of Allah's greatness
whereby one becomes better, for
example, than those who battle the
disbelievers without such recollection.”

The seventh instruction employs the
language of Muslim asceticism and
mysticism to reinforce the urge to
suicide or self-martyrdom. The mass
murderer is encouraged to see his
action as selfless. He is to “purify” his
“heart” and cleanse it of “stains.” He
is to forget that there is even such a
thing as “this world.” He is informed
that the time for play has ended, and
the rendezvous Eternal Truth is
nearing. He is encouraged to regret
how much of his life he has “wasted,”
i.e., spent on impious pursuits or in
search of merely material benefits. He
should “take advantage” of these, his
last hours, to offer up to God acts that
will draw him near to the divine and
express his obedience. Whereas
traditional Islamic piety urged
detachment from the material world as
an aid to ethical and spiritual
fulfillment, the Doomsday Document
urges it as a support for suicide and
massive killing of civilians.

There may be a hint in this paragraph
of a strategy of using guilt to
manipulate the hijackers. We know
that al-Qaeda operatives were often
encouraged to antinomian behavior,
including hanging out at strip clubs and
with fast women. Khalid Shaikh
Muhammad was a notorious playboy
and high roller during his years in the
Philippines. Several of the hijackers
were known o frequent US strip clubs
and to drink heavily. Bin Laden
admitted that the hijackers were not
Muslims in the ordinary (i.e. Wahhabi)
sense of the term, and it was to this
strategy of antinomianism that he
probably was referring. The sinful
lifestyle probably had several
advantages. It served as a form of
false flag tradecraft, that is, of covert
deception, in throwing off any
intelligence organizations that might
have been tracking the hijackers as
suspected Islamist terrorists. Such
libertine behavior was in part a cover,
insofar as it marked the operatives as
irreligious. But it may have had other
implications as well. It served as a
reward to young men who would end
their lives early, allowing them to live
out fantasies and feel that had lived
full lives. The earthly delights may
also have been intended to serve as a
reminder for the even more impressive
heavenly delights promised after their
suicides. Were the American exotic
dancers intended to be symbols of the
houris or maidens of paradise the
document mentions elsewhere?
Finally, despite all the good tactical
reasons they had for behaving this
way, the hijackers must have felt some
guilt over it, as committed Muslim
fundamentalists. This last feeling is
played upon in paragraph 7. The time
for play is over. They have wasted
much of their lives with unworthy,
worldly activities. Now they must feel
the full regret and prepare to make
amends with a final night of worship,
drawing close, and preparation for the
rendezvous with God. Their earthly
lives have been in any case “ruined” by
their antinomian activities, so why no
not just cast off that old skin and
emerge into a new existence in the
afterlife?

The fifteenth and final instruction
concerns the morning of September
11. The hijackers are to prayer their
dawn obligatory prayers

[nw_arizona_granny]

Part 2:


The fifteenth and final instruction
concerns the morning of September
11. The hijackers are to prayer their
dawn obligatory prayers in
congregation. Only the Friday noon
prayers are necessarily prayed in
congregation, but committed Muslims
often believe that a special award
attaches to going to the mosque to
pray even some of the five daily
prayers in congregation. Al-Banna had
written, “try to pray in congregation in
the mosque as frequently as possible.”
Al-Qaeda also clearly held that group
prayer contributes to solidarity. The
hijacker is then to proceed to the
morning dhikr or recitation, and should
continue to reflect on the reward of
saying dawn prayers in congregation.
After performing their morning routines
and before leaving the apartment, the
hijackers are instructed to perform their
ablutions once again. The reason
given for this action is that “angels
seek forgiveness for you as long as you
have prepared ablutions and they pray
on your behalf.” The hijackers are
encouraged to live in a magical world
of omens and angels, where small
ritual acts serve as guarantees of
divine succor . . .

The beginning instructions of the
Doomsday Document give us vital
insight into how a normal, middle
class, secular young man like Ziad
Jarrah, a Lebanese engineer with at
Turkish-German live-in girlfriend, could
become a mass murderer and suicide.
He and others were convinced that they
were reenacting sacred history. The
United States was not a Christian
country but rather a reincarnation of
pagan Mecca. As Mecca was
attempting to invade Medina and
destroy Islam, so the United States
had invaded the Muslim world to
undermine Islam. The hardy band of
real Muslims who recognized the
extreme threat had no choice but to
undertake a raid (ghazwah) against
this much superior foe. Just as small
bands of early Muslims often inflicted
defeats on larger Meccan forces, so a
handful of young believers could hope
to inflict a grievous blow on the 21st
century Mecca of the West.

The hijackers thus saw themselves as
holy warriors, as Muslim raiders. Their
victims were not even human, but
rather mere animals for ritual
slaughter. Atta and other handlers
convinced them to live a double life.
Inwardly they were committed to piety
and asceticism and self-sacrifice.
Outwardly they frequented bars and
strip clubs, both to throw the
intelligence agencies off the scent and
to get a foretaste of the rewards of
martyrdom. If it was Bin Laden who
put them up to this double life, he may
well have done so with personal
knowledge of the kind of guilt it would
induce, and the kind of self-hatred and
openness to manipulation to which the
guilt could lead.

The internal psychology of commitment
to murder on a huge scale and to die in
the process was underpinned by an
almost obsessive-compulsive
immersion in the details of repeated
rituals. Specific phrases were recited
with every activity, constantly. The
internal monologue was drowned in a
set of sacred mantras, leaving no
space for questioning orders. The
constant hum of the recitation may
have been intended in part to induce a
liminal state that was not entirely
conscious. The intensity and lack of
small talk that those who met them
remarked on in the hijackers probably
derived from their silent, constant dhikr
or repetition of sacred verses. This
liminal consciousness may have been
reinforced by deliberate sleep
deprivation, and by bouts of
drunkenness. Employed as they were
intended, the techniques of Islamic
mysticism have produced saints and
sages like Rumi and al-Ghazali.
Misused as a form of brainwashing,
they appear to have contributed to
among the largest mass murders in
history.





Appendix:

First section of the Doomsday
Document
Trans. J. Cole


The Last Night

1) Vow to accept death, renew
admonition [of the base self], shave
the extra hair on the body, perfume
yourself, and ritually wash yourself.

2) Know the plan well from every
angle. Anticipate the reaction or the
resistance of the enemy.

3) Read the surahs of Repentance and
The Spoils. Contemplate their meaning
and the bounties God has prepared and
established for the martyrs.

4) Remind your base self to listen and
obey this night, for you will be exposed
to decisive turning points wherein
listening and obeying is one hundred
percent necessary. Train your base
self, make it understand, convince it,
and goad it on to this end. “And obey
God, and His Messenger, and do not
quarrel together, and so lose heart,
and your power depart; and be patient;
surely God is with the patient.”

5) Staying up at night and imploring in
prayer for victory and strength and
perspicuous triumph, and the easing of
our task, and concealment.

6) Much recitation of sacred phrases.
Know that the best of dhikr is reciting
the noble Qur’an. This is the consensus
of the people of knowledge or, indeed,
of the most learned. It is enough for
us that it is the words of the creator of
the heavens and the earth toward
Whom you are advancing.

7) Purify your heart and cleanse it of
stains. Forget and be oblivious to that
thing called the world. For, the time
for playing has passed, and the time
has arrived for the rendezvous with the
eternal Truth. How much of our lives
we have wasted! Shall we not take
advantage of these hours to offer up
acts of nearness [to God] and
obedience?

8) Let your breast be filled with
gladness, for there is nothing between
you and your wedding but mere
seconds. Thereby will begin a happy
and contented life and immortal
blessing with the prophets, the true
ones and the righteous martyrs. They
are the best of companions. We
beseech God for his grace. So seek
good omens. For the Prophet, may
blessings and peace be upon him, used
to love divination about every matter.

9) Then fix your gaze, such that if you
fall into tribulations, you will know how
to behave, how to stand firm, how to
say “We are, verily, from God and to
him we shall return.” Thus you will
know that what has befallen you is not
because of any error you committed.
That you committed an error was not
so that you would face tribulations.
That calamity of yours is in fact from
God, may he be exalted and
glorified—so as to elevate your station
and cause your sins to be forgiven.
Know that it is only a matter of
seconds before it shines forth by the
permission of God. Then blessed is he
who attains the great recompense from
God. God says, “Did you think you
would enter paradise when God knows
those who strove among you, and
knows the patient?” “Am hasabtum an
tadkhulu al-jannat . . .

10) Then recite (tadhkharu) the words
of God, “You were wishing for death
before you encountered it, then you
saw it, and are looking for it . . .” And
you wanted it. After than, recite the
verse “Kam min fi’ah qalilah ghalaba
fi’ah kathirah bi idhn Allah . . .” And In
yunsirukum Allah fa la ghalib lakum . . “

11) Bring your base self, as well as
your brethren, to remembrance through
prayers. And contemplate their
meaning (recitations [adhkar] of
morning and evening, recitations of
city [baldah], recitations of . .
.[makan], recitations of meeting [liqa’
al-Tur] . . . ].

12) The jet: (with breath [an-nafs],
suitcase, clothing, knife, tools, identity
papers, passport and all your papers.]

13) Inspect your weapon before setting
out and before you even begin to set
out and [CBS: “Let every one of you
sharpen his knife and kill his animal
(dhabiha) and bring about comfort and
relief of his slaughter” before the
journey. ]

14) Pull your clothes tightly about you,
for this is the way of the pious
ancestors (as-salaf as-salih), may God
be pleased with them. They pulled
their clothing tightly about them before
a battle. Pull your shoelaces tight and
wear tight socks that grip the shoes
and do not come out of them. All of
these are means that we have been
commanded to adopt. God has
hasabna and he is the best of
advocates (na’im al-wakil).

15) Pray the morning prayers in
congregation and reflect on the reward
for doing so while you are performing
recitation afterwards. Do not go out of
your apartment without having
performed ablutions. For the angels
seek forgiveness for you as long as you
have prepared ablutions and they pray
on your behalf.

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