Medieval Occult of Sufism and Modern Day Suicide Bombers

Just a quick post from a comment I posted on another site after somebody gave me the website to an anti-occult group. Now, I'm not posting the anti-occult site mainly because it links to bogus conspiracy theories about 9/11 and boasts Thierry's book on the CIA inside job on 9/11. However, the information about sufism was well sourced and quoted many notable authoris from the 19th century forward who have studied ancient occults and their practices. When I get a chance, I will source these items from other websites or online books.

IN the meantime, I thought some of you would be interested in some of the parallels between medieval occult of Islam and the current day rash of suiciders we see today.

I was just looking at a site provided to me by sleepless. The site itself was a bit bogus with conspiracy theories, however, it linked to specific books and studies on sufism and it's transcendental manifestations. It pointed to books on the history of certain occults (now often considered heretical) within Islam.

One of the sufi occults referred to was the Nazariya (sp?) Ashashin (from which the word "assassin" is originated in modern english). According to studies of this group, the accolytes were first isolated from their normal societal group, then challenged on their faith through slow question and answering. the accolytes were assigned one teacher, an imam of the highest order, who was skilled in breaking down the students faith.

Slowly, they were brought to the level understanding that their faith and cultural boundaries and the rituals thereof (ie, praying, fasting, etc) were laws for the "others" or those who were not privy to the great knowledge of the adherents. Then they were taught that their faith was only one dimension and adhering solely to those beliefs would not bring them to the ultimate knowledge of the inner, personal relationship with the ONE (ie God, Allah, Higher Being) so they had to throw that away in order to achieve the next level.

Once they had done so, the secret or knowledge of the personal relationship is revealed. From there they are convinced that they are above the others of their faith (who are sheep in need of a shephard and guardians and who will not attain the paradise of the adherents)
kat-in pajamas/missouri | Email | Homepage | 01.18.05 - 6:41 pm | #

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During this process, the initiates were fed hashish for several days until they became sleepy in their austere surroundings. Then they would be carried to a separate area that was a garden with many trees, running water, beautiful birds and animals and women to see to their every needs.

The imams would then explain that the initiates had attained "paradise" and in order to remain there or return, they had to perform the tasks assigned to them by the Imam who they are taught in the sixth or seventh cycle is the interceder (due to their higher level of personal relationship with the ONE) on their behalf.

Most of the tasks set for them were of course, assassination. Having shuffled off their original belief system and the rituals of their religion, they could easily take (and were instructed to) and assimilate any and all parts of the religion or rituals they were exposed to during their assignment to infiltrate other cultures or societies and carry out their mission.

This occult was active from 1097 to approximately 1363 (?) until they were crushed by the Othoman usurper to the caliphate.

However, the occult had a tradition of disseminating throughout local societies as well as hiding in the mountains surrounding Iran (Persia) and many of their traditions were able to survive.
kat-in pajamas/missouri | Email | Homepage | 01.18.05 - 6:42 pm | #

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If you read some of the other sites, sam at Hammoribi for instance, they often refer to the insurgents/terrorists as sufis/wahabists.

Technically, the wahabis believe that pure sufism is heretical but it has obviously not stopped them from adopting the practices in some manner to their version of Islam. It is also why the "mainstream" Islam considers wahabism to be an occult or heresy (of course, there are a lot of separate issues about the lineage of Mohammads successors, the number of "true imams" 6, 9 or 12 depending on your sect of Islam, etc).

Looking at the practices of the Hamas, whom Zawahir has general praise for their practices and sole dedication to the removal of Israel and the return of ALL the land to the Palestinians (he doesn't like the socialist, kleptocracy of the PLO), they follow a near similar path in which they first single out a youth at the mosque who may be accepting of other ideas (ie, who may challenge the lessons of the local imam). They place him/her with a teacher. At a certain level, they isolate the potential martyr and then concentrate on bringing them to the "higher level" of understanding. According to a special that I saw sometime last year, this isolation period is between two weeks and one month. Probably depends on the student and/or their need for an operative.

At which time, while not physically taking them to the garden of paradise as the original occult did, the acceptance of paradise with the 72 beautiful virgins (or whatever paradise seems to apply for women), is drilled into them as their reward for following the path or completing the task. Very similar to the sufi occult of the 11th century.

Also noted, the occult of that period would give hashish or other halucinatory drugs (knocks down inhibition, too), to the initiates. You may recall during operations in Najaf and fallujah, drug paraphernalia was found in large quantities.

I believe that a concentrated format of the original sufi initiation is being performed on the suicide bombers (obviously, they have other qualities that already point to them as potentials, but we are talking about how it occurs in the end). Since they cannot provide a literal garden of paradise, it is the theoretical that is provided.

Mind you, this is my current limited understanding of the situation. I'm sure there are other factors, but it is interesting the parallels to this occult and current practices.