International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 37

Know What You Are Fighting
Leaders and the Concept of “Condensation”
A collective behavior can only be completely understood by reference, in space
and time, to its social origins, but the major orientations of the activities of groups
or masses cannot reveal their secrets if we fail to study the influence and roles of
individual actions, those of the leaders as well as those of the mass. 18
Made up of endogenous and exogenous factors, the criminogenic mass does
not act on credulous souls, does not transform them into murderous machines, without
a crucial precipitation or condensation (in the chemical sense). Indeed, someone who
suffers from hunger or from psychological or relational problems does not necessarily
become a criminal. By itself the proverb “An empty stomach has no ears” does not
explain the passage into action. The criminogenic mass comes up against prophylactic
social barriers at every turn; what is known as the “moral consciousness” can awaken
at any moment from internal or external stimuli. Nevertheless, if the condensation of
criminogenic factors is progressing well, all that is missing is the element to trigger
the creation of a human bomb. To do this, the discourse of the preachers of death must
provide a powerful anesthesia. These leaders therefore play a dominant role.
An Anesthesia Known as Takfir
An Egyptian teacher born in 1906 and executed in 1966, Sayyd Qotb applied
the notion of Takfir as used by Ibn Taymyya in reference to the Mongols, to the land
of Islam. According to Qotb, Muslim society of the twentieth century found itself in
the situation of the Arabs of the Djahilia (period of ignorance before the advent of
Islam). Rejecting any compromise with the government, Qotb called for violence as
the only way to achieve the Islamic state. The notion of Takfir then spread to senior
civil servants and the ulemas who rejected fundamentalism. Jihad then became a duty
for all Muslims.
Qotb, who respected Hassan El Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood,
took up his ideas and radicalized them. To justify his innovative doctrine and condemn
the immobility of the traditionalists, he also used the notion of Fiqh haraqi (dynamic
jurisprudence) created by his predecessor, El Afghani. Sayyd Qotb thus became a
leading figure in fundamentalism who was cited by the terrorists of every country
touched by Islamism. His ideas freed the criminal potentiality leading to action. A
highly criminogenic trio, the jihad authorized by Takfir, that idjtihad created, became
the main tools of Islamist terrorism.
The already radical ideas of Qotb passed to the extreme in Egypt and then
from there moved to other countries. Extremist parties and groups proliferated, some
secretly and others legally. Among them was the Society of Muslims (Jama'a islamiyya)
18
Dicks, Henry V, Licensed Mass Murder: A Socio-Psychological Study of Some SS Killers (New
York: Basic Books, 1973). [les meurtres collectifs, P15, Calmann-Levy. 1973.] [Translator’s Note—This
passage was back-translated from the French version of the text.]
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