In Hitler’s evil, fascist-dominated Germany of WWII, a minority percent of German society were active Nazi Party members.  In Gaza, a minority are active members of evil Sunni Islamo-fascist Hamas.  In Lebanon, evil Shiite Islamo-fascist Hezb’allah members are a minority.  In China, only ten present of its 1.4 billion people are Communist Party members.  How do these heinous, destructive groups gain and stubbornly maintain political power and dominance over large groups or societies?

Youth Movements

In Gaza, small boys have been described playing suicide bombers, with little pretend suicide bomb–laden vests, to the delight of their elders.  Some radical  Palestinian Gaza schools teach, extol, and inculcate anti-Israeli and anti-American propaganda while tunnels beneath the schools contain rockets and weapons for use in killing Israelis.  For Islamo-fascist recruiters, the early school years are the fertile soil and the foundation for the theology of Islamo-fascism.  They  pave the way for the dominance of antisemitism and anti-Americanism.

Even though bin Laden and Zawahiri of al-Qaeda and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIS are dead, the anniversaries of 9/11 and now Hamas’s October 7 terror attack provoke a haunting and important question.  Why do many young Arabs, Muslims, and even Americans remain entranced with bin Laden’s and Zawahiri’s Pied Piper music of fascist Islamist jihad?

It is also important to understand the uniquely chilling social-psychological fit between the religiously flavored charismatic leadership of a man like Osama bin Laden and the group psychology of communities where he and his colleagues and mentors recruit devoted terrorists.  Afghanistan is once again becoming an al-Qaeda and ISIS haven, as are Lebanon and Yemen, where bin Laden’s father was born.  

It is a serious mistake to glibly label and dismiss men like bin Laden, Zawahiri, and Baghdadi as simply dead mass murderers, psychotics, thugs, psychopaths, or criminals.  In painful truth, they are often perceived as Robin Hood–like figures and spiritual heroes for many people in the Muslim world.

Even American homegrown terrorists who want to attack America and the West often express profound admiration for the martyred Osama bin Laden.  For American leaders to imply that al-Qaeda or ISIS is defeated because their leaders are killed is like saying Christianity died when Jesus Christ was crucified.

The Cover of  Seeming Benevolent Community Projects

In addition to schools and mosques, beneath which rockets are stored, Hamas and Hezb’allah sponsor community projects providing food, water, electrical power, and sewage disposal facilities.  Such projects create goodwill with dominated communities despite dominance of the political domain and even confiscation of benevolently intended aid from America and other countries.  From the beautiful, inspiring mosques come fiery jihadist anti-Israeli and anti-Western diatribes and fatwa calls to destroy Israel and the great Satan, America.

Victimhood themes accompany the preaching about Western democracies’ interference and Israel’s alleged oppression, apartheid, and evil occupation.  Anti-Hamas, anti-Hezb’allah, and anti-communism speech in the case of China, and political opposition, is squashed forcefully.  Government handouts and government- controlled education and jobs are powerful persuasive forces.  They aid in supporting the appearance of the dominated to accept domination.

Image: paul_houle via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.