Jihadi Rage @Al Aqsa

This post’s subtitle:

The Eruption of the Palestinian Volcanic Iceberg Mentality

Screenshots taken from the video of twitter feed in the following article at Times of Israel: https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1516707124969148419?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1516707124969148419%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofisrael.com%2Fsome-clashes-reported-at-al-aqsa-ahead-of-planned-right-wing-march-in-jerusalem%2F

“Palestinian rioters hurling petrol bombs spark small fires at mosque” - https://www.timesofisrael.com/some-clashes-reported-at-al-aqsa-ahead-of-planned-right-wing-march-in-jerusalem/

Howard Bloom author of The Muhammad Code cites Margaret Mead – “some cultures encourage rage and some encourage sensitivity. Some encourage the brutal and some encourage the gentle.” P. 17. Obviously, this fits Mead’s comment that Islam is a culture which promotes and endorses rage by allowing its rioters free rein at their third most holy site. Furthermore, Muslim leaders world-wide have formed an identification with their very own aggressors whom they raised. They criticize Israel and as in my preceding post – all one has to do is look at their feet and see the stones that they have amassed to kill and now the petrol bombs to burn.

What is it about fire and rage? Why is fire symbolically associated with rage?

Here are a few tidbits from my The Jihadi Dictionary on the subject of the fire and rage of the jihadis:

From the entry on Greed:

The insatiable hunger and deprivation felt by the jihadis is expressed in their push to invade boundaries, acquire and control, and then destroy all. Greed is a defense mechanism to ward off deprivation and results in destroying the target of the jihadi envy: those who have more than they do. Deprivation is the primitive state of unmet needs vis à vis the mother. The hunger that cannot be sated and inability to express needs appropriately in a shame‒honor environment propel the Jihadi’s grandiosity, pouring more fuel on the fire of greed. Fire, along with the rage, is emblematic of the jihadi attacks.

From the entry on the Umbilical Cord:

The jihadi is always trying to sever this tie with the mother’s body. The link or cord surfaces in much of the group’s bloody imagery, just like birth and the afterbirth. However, the jihadi is stuck in a twilight zone of no separation. The image of the umbilical cord appears as a wick that was ignited by a jihadi of the Islamic State, immolating the Jordanian pilot Muath Safi Al Kassabeh, who had been placed in a cage. The jihadi terrorists lit a very long umbilicus-like cord to set the pilot on fire, roasting him to death. This mental image reflects the contents’ of the Islamic State’s psychotic, enacted fantasy. The cage symbolized the womb of the mother, but even this symbolic representation of the womb is unsafe for the jihadis. In their primitive mental state, the cage and wick are the misuse of the object, and the tragic, brutal death of Al Kassabeh is the misuse of a person.

From the entry on the Volcanic Iceberg Mentality:

I originally coined the phrase “volcanic iceberg mentality” to describe the behavior of the Chechen jihadis specifically and the Tsarnaev brothers in particular. Even though the Tsarnaevs were from Dagestan, they identified with the warrior jihadi nature of the Chechens. However, this unfortunately lends itself to national stereotyping; obviously not all Chechens are jihadis. Thus, I have broadened this concept to jihadis and terrorists in general.

In Iceland the icebergs have active volcanoes beneath them, with the potential to make a global impact on the environment. I appropriated this image as a metaphor for jihadis, who can appear to have a cold-as-ice calm while below the surface lurks a violent, murderous personality. The volcanic iceberg mentality is a narrative descriptor of the jihadis’ lack of empathy; their obsession with warrior weaponry, fire, and rage; and their murder and maiming of innocent men, women, and children. Of utmost importance is understanding the impact of a shame–honor culture and religion on children, and how problematic child-rearing practices unintentionally prevent children from acquiring empathy. The volcanic iceberg mentality is a psychotic adaptation, a result of children having been treated as objects when they were infants, a vicious cycle transmitted across generations. While the metaphor presents a dialectic of an icy image, underneath there lies a seething cauldron of rage ready to explode, This mentality also encompasses the dynamic of psychic splitting, which fits with the paranoid thinking that frequently occurs in “nice guy” psychopaths who turn out to be serial killers.”

From the entry Projection:

Because of the deep psychological splitting in the mind of the jihadis, their attacking behavior is a projection, as they strive to rid themselves of their toxic, unbearable terrors. If we could do a psychological X-ray, it would reveal an inner world of psychotic chaos. The jihadis’ unconscious “lived experience” and its projection of blood, guts, fire, explosives, and fighting to the death in suicide bombing paints a picture of a violent, iconoclastic breaking of the maternal attachment.

In a fascinating, seemingly unrelated, short essay entitled “Crime as an attempt at intrapsychic adaptation,” the late Marti Tuovinen, M.D., a psychoanalytically trained Finnish psychiatrist, explained the mindset of the perpetrators of crime. Tuovinen walked in their shoes, explaining the adaptive value of their seemingly bizarre violent behavior, which helps the observer of criminal behavior understand the bizarre violence as having specific meaning to the perpetrators, who are without real thought or empathy for their victims. The essay lays bare the root problem of the highly problematic violent behavior so that law enforcement and other officials can develop appropriate and effective interventions. In addition, this perspective on the perpetrator’s mind educates the public to the real causes of the violence and explains the force of the criminal’s projections onto the victim. As such, Tuovinen’s essay offers insights into the skewed thinking of the jihadis that results in their criminally depraved acts and the reasons behind their violent projections.

From the entry Emotional Intelligence [which jihadis lack]:

Something went wrong in the early maternal environment, rendering the child within the jihadi unable to come to understand his emotions. He never had the chance to learn how to label and manage his emotions because needs of the shame‒honor environment constantly fed the fire of rage and blame. The jihadis did not become motivated to achieve self-control, nor did they learn how to recognize emotions in others. Jihadis may give the appearance of being able to handle relationships but this is only the outward public appearance. Behind closed doors the jihadi is a different person and a split personality.

A good example of emotional intelligence was articulated through the spontaneous body language of Lt. Col. Chris Hughes when he and his men were approaching a mosque in Najaf and a swarm of enraged Arab men came toward them. He told his men to take a knee and point their weapons down. This can be understood as the swarm projected their rage, which was immediately felt and responded to but not met with counter-rage. These nonverbal communications are critical in responding to jihad violence. Lt. Col. Hughes demonstrated his understanding of their lack of emotional intelligence through a kind of intuitive countertransference.

These random thoughts might help to reframe what one is witnessing and viewing with regard to what is really happening on the Temple Mount/Har Ha-Bayit where Al Aqsa is allegedly under attack though it seems by its very own jihadis. To quote Billy Joel – we didn’t start the fire.