Call radical Islam what it is...a Religious Death Cult [View all]

[B2G]

They have all of the hallmarks of a cult...recruiting, brainwashing, holding adherents in captivity (psychologically and sometimes physically) and completely breaking down their recruits' identities and essentially turning them into killing machines.

But it is a cult that uses religion as it's primary tool to indoctrinate and control, just like so many other cults do. The list goes on and one...Scientology, The Unification Church, Aum Shinrikyo, Children of God, The Branch Davidians, The People's Temple, Heaven's Gate...just to name a few.

You cannot remove the religious component from the equation. The main difference between ISIS and other religious cults are their sheer numbers and the horrible violence perpetrated on non-adherents. Most cults are content to live out their lives in their little bubbles and purposely disengage from the outside world. But they all use some form of religious ideology to manipulate the control.

I think we're having a hard time understanding the dynamics of ISIS because it's a cult like no one has ever seen before. And until we understand this, we'll continue to spin our wheels trying to figure out how they keep attracting supposedly intelligent people into their ranks.