Understanding the
Staircase to Terrorism
From a psychological point of view, theres a famous saying that
no one wakes up one morning and decides that today is the day to
become a terrorist (Western Psychological Association,
2004).
There are steps towards becoming a terrorist or adopting a
terrorist worldview. As we will highlight on the misunderstood
religious motivation adopted by the JI, let us just briefly capture
the steps from a psychological perspective which leads one to
become a terrorist.
Everyone starts on the Ground Floor, where one seeks to find
meaning in life through greater understanding of religion or
participating in a desired activity. From the Ground floor, one is
introduced to the first floor where the ideology of a certain group
is presented. As we shall see, the ideology is crucial because it
guides and justify terrorists motive for action.
On the next floor, the second floor or the Cultivation Stage, one
is cultivated through thought reforming process which will change a
persons way of looking at the world, which will then change his
behaviour. Next, one moves to the third floor, to secure ones
commitment through rites and oaths as official process of
recruitment (One of us) to signify brotherhood.
Then, one is led to the fourth floor, the Moral Disengagement or
Power of Group Influence stage, through finding legitimate and
unquestionable justification for action through tree basic steps,
which are:
Deindividuation (loss of individuality)
Diffusion of Responsibility (Shared responsibility)
Division of labour
Finally, in the last floor, the fifth floor, one is recruited to
the path of terrorism. The members are psychologically prepared on
their sacred vision, and means of achieving it. They start obeying
their legitimate authority to show their obedience.
Religious Rehabilitation
Group
From the newly launched website of the Religious Rehabilitation
Group, a how-to-make-a-terrorist. Although it's specifically
targeted towards the Muslim community, the 'floors' leading to
terrorism could be applied to any organized religion or cult.
