Classical Islamic Paradigms of Deterrence and their Expression in ...

dancing and the use of body colors by early hominids in Africa. When hominids first went to the open grasslands in Africa, they needed to find ways to deter large predators, later other groups. Ritualistic stomping,dancing, making noises and mutual body-painting served as social mechanisms to glue groups together,replace individual awareness with collective awareness, and enter a state of "battle trance" to deter orfight enemies. 57 Thus, group building, collective identity and deterrence are closely connected to commonrituals and one element strengthens the other. This partly answers questions of ratio behind the collectivebehavior of religious sub-state actors’. The need to constantly renew group identity serves as a drivingforce to develop deterrence paradigms and vice versa.German jihadis who stayed at training camps of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Waziristan between2009 until 2011 have explicitly described their conditioning, when they were interrogated by the Germanpolice. "The stay at the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was governed by a rigid daily schedule, whichcomprised common prayer, reading the Qur'an as well as communal sports activities and shared dinners." 58In addition, common singing of traditional Islamic battle songs (huda' and anasheed), as well as ritualpassages of motivation and loyalty (bay'a) were used to induce "battle-trance" states, group cohesion andintimidate enemies. In combination with actual battle operations, this resulted into a strong socioideologicalgluing together of some of the German jihadis with the Uzbeks. 59 The group cohesion wasdisturbed by hierarchy conflicts within the German sub-group, which took place between "elders" and"novices," i.e. those who arrived later from Germany. This and the rough atmosphere was the reason thatsome German jihadis quickly left the Uzbek training camps. The Germans, who stayed, however, becameindoctrinated. They were convinced that their appearance alone would frighten and deter U.S. soldiers(stationed in Afghanistan). 60 "The defendant described himself as a man not from this world, but from thehereafter. He strived to live with his whole family in paradise. Enemies he saw would be beheaded by him;American soldiers were afraid of him and the likes of him. He summoned his father to move to him at theend of his live in order to participate in jihad and die as a martyr." 61This example of the psychology of a young European jihadi is very telling. The recruit fully incorporatedsimple jihadi myths of community, enmity and salvation, which led him to believe that the sole aura of hisgroup spreads dreadful fear among the enemies. This was paired with an excessively exaggerated selfperceptionas living martyr, based on an undifferentiated and awestruck veneration of martyrdom culture,which one might call ittiqa' al-istishhadiyya.Specific group behavior and rituals strengthen the collective identity, but also anger on the perceivedenemy. The result is ever more dissociation from mainstream society, which evokes display of power.Group rituals around martyrdom ideology diminish fears from death, intimidate the enemy and havestrongly dis-inhibiting effects. This cultivation of martyrdom and deterrence among Muslim sub-state actorsdoes not resemble "classical" paradigms of Cold War thinking. It is rather based on primordial small-groupsocialization, religious fear and concepts of endemic warfare.Just as there are different ways to diminish fear, there are common ways to learn and condition fears.These are the own experience, such as playing with fire; the observance of members of the own speciesand group, i.e. learning at a model; and instruction by warnings, rules and threat scenarios. A psychological57 Joseph Jordania, "Why do Humans Sing? Music in Human Evolution", Logos, 2011.58 "Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof; Anklageschrift gegen W.S." 2 BJs 40/11-8-2 StE 10/11-8, Karlsruhe, den 26. October2011.59 Ibid.60 Ibid and interrogation protocol by German Federal Police of R.M.61 Ibid.18