Is Islam a Mental Illness?

From The Gathering Storm

Zacarias Moussaoui did not get the death penalty. The jury opted for a life sentence. Was this an opportunity lost to reveal Islam for what it is?

Let’s consider the man – and then his religion.

But first, a digression. I think it was Robert Spencer who has written about this. My apologies to Spencer if I’m wrong. Anyway, the story is correct.

It seems he was in a cab on his way to lecture. The cab was driven by a man who told him he was a Muslim. The cab driver was asked is he believed murdering innocent people was sanctioned by the Koran. The cab driver replied, “No. The Koran does not permit murder.” Then without a pause he added, “Unless they are Jews.”

That tells you something about the mental state of a common follower of Islam. Now, back to Moussaoui.

Confronted with Moussaoui’s freelance rantings and delusions, his defense attorneys had little choice but to take a ‘metal illness’ stand for his defense. Lawyers for Moussaoui are trying to show the jury in the penalty phase of his conspiracy trial that their client suffers from serious mental illness. They claim he is a paranoid schizophrenic.

For proof they say Moussaoui believed President Bush will free him, that the FBI bugged his electric fan, his claim he had nothing to do with 9/11 and then reversed himself and said he was to hijack a fifth jetliner that day and fly it into the White House, he plead guilty early and asked for death and then vowed to fight execution, and his demand that defense lawyers stop filing motions because filing them violated his religion, followed by dozens of motions he filed himself.

Is Moussaoui mentally ill? Or perhaps the very beliefs of his religion makes him so?

Consider this. You’re a psychiatrist speaking with a Muslim. The Muslim claims:

1. He is compelled to repeat the same action every day
2. He overacts to criticism, no matter how minor
3. He thinks everyone hates him

If you were that psychiatrist you would immediately put him on drugs because he was showing signs of obsessive-compulsive behavior, paranoia, and a persecution complex.

Now, let’s look at these metal illnesses as they apply to the practitioners of Islam.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is manifested in a variety of forms, but is most commonly characterized by a subject's obsessive compulsions (tasks or rituals) which attempt to neutralize the obsessions.

Muslims: Are compelled to pray 5 times a day, everyday, for the rest of their lives.

Paranoia is the belief that others are exploiting, or deceiving them, that others may not be loyal or trustworthy, believes there are threats or attacks on their character, bears persistent grudges, sees others as having malevolent intentions toward them, and has a constant habit of blaming others for their problems.

Muslims: The West is waging a Crusade against Islam and they are the cause of their self-made problems.

Persecution complex is when someone is convinced of the validity of their delusions and cannot tolerate criticism of their ideas. Questioning of their beliefs, no matter how trivial, is met with evasiveness, defensiveness, irritability, and hostility.

Muslims: From the triviality of the Mohammed cartoons to books by authors like Robert Spencer, just to list a few, a Muslim’s response is to claim persecution.

Looking at the metal illness of Islam, I’d say Moussaoui’s lawyers had it right. He was mentally ill. But you’d never hear them couch it terms of the belief in Islam.

Too bad. It would have given the world a good object lesson on Islam.