International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 34

International Journal on Criminology
1. The devil preaching submission and obedience to the state,
2. The unjust ruler who disobeys the divine verdicts, such as those who produced a
constitution contrary to Islam,
3. Those who claim to know the hereafter,
4. Those who knowingly substitute people for God.
The word then also refers to everyone who refuses the authority of the terrorists.
The same text requires criminals who would join terrorist groups to consider violence,
which they call “jihad,” to be the only path to an Islamic state; that they pledge
obedience to the terrorist leader “Emir”; and that they avoid appearing inquisitive.
This incrimination then expands to encompass the entire “unbelieving and
infidel” society. As already noted, this mechanism acts in both the individual and
the group, reinforced even more in the latter by the power conferred by anonymity
and impunity. It serves to legitimize blind violence and unleash aggressive impulses
that had previously been contained by internal psychological censure, a mental
representative of collective consciousness.
Committing a crime: this decision has to mature; it goes through stages. First
it fleetingly crosses the subject’s mind under the effect of sudden aggressive impulses.
These urges are brief, subject to the immediate censorship of a moral conscience.
Encouraged by incriminating and provocative discussions, aggressive thoughts reach
the consciousness. A dialogue is established between it, prisoner of the ambiance of
the moment, and the demands of impulse, which is known as mitigated acquiescence. 15
Hesitation then overcomes a consciousness constantly subjected to discourses
seeking to anesthetize the censorship mechanism and free the unleashing of aggressive
impulses. Consent to violence grows in a half-paralyzed consciousness. The idea of
committing the act emerges. When this threshold is crossed, violence is set free. The
same is true of the groups that evaluate the legitimacy of their involvement before
finally passing to a criminal act. During discussions, arguments are made but all end
up legitimizing violence.
From the so-called “pacifist” proselytizers to the extremists calling for exile and
expiation, the idea of violence evolves constantly until the final and total acceptance of
terrorism. The various terrorist factions in fact only represent the successive stages in
the maturation of the criminal idea. All of these movements want to subject others to
their edicts, first peacefully, then by intimidation, and finally by cruelty and terror. At
the start of the communiqué quoted above, a verse of the Quran (without reference),
pushes to sadistic violence. It states: “fight them, God will torture them by your hand.”
The word torture here acts as a trigger for primal sadistic impulses, as we will see
below.
15
An expression often used by the Belgian psychiatrist and criminologist Étienne de Greeff.
33