by Paul Copher
“What is Shiite and what makes them so violent?” The question comes up among police, military and security specialists like turkey at Thanksgiving dinner.
Despite the popular picture painted by the media, Islam’s Shiite sect is not terrorist oriented. Its members generally live a very sedate lifestyle. The culture of the Islamic community requires that hospitality be shown to strangers; Islamic tenets say that it’s wrong to steal or kill for no reason, and that it is wrong to take hostages. So why is the West having so much trouble with the Shiites?
What distinguishes the Shiia sect from other Islamic groups is the method of interpretation of the Shariat Laws of the Holy Koran. The Moslem terrorists of the Shiite sect are often told how to relate their everyday life to the Koran by a person they consider very learned, and in some cases, for whom they would kill or die.
Would the average Shiite drive a truck loaded with explosives into a U.S. government building? No, only a fool would do that – or a man on a mission for Allah. Shiites are no fools. The violence of some Shiites is a result of the mullahs, or ayatollahs, which interpret the Koran for the Shiite people. These same leaders are now engaged in politics. For political reasons the clerics are using the Koran and their religious authority to guide their followers into performing acts that would normally be socially and culturally unacceptable to the entire Islamic community.
Just how far does the ingrained training of the mullah project into everyday life? A religious leader can dictate the way you urinate, have sex, or conduct business according to the Holy Koranic laws. If it seems strange, it is true nonetheless. I have seen teenagers try to clear a path through landmines for advancing tanks, meanwhile, reciting verses from the Koran and professing loyalty to the local mullahs and ayatollahs! I have seen men and women break down and cry because their donators failed and they were unable to kill the enemies of Islam and go directly to Paradise!
But in a previous job, where I had a chance to interview captured or defeated terrorists, I saw there is another side. I talked with Shiite terrorist group members who value their lives above all else. Some, who had only recently received their orders to be a suicide bomber, simply ran away. It is from these people that the intelligence community has learned about the preparation and training given to those chosen for who were to be warriors for Allah.
Usually a “martyr” is identified from among the member of the Shiite community. A key feature sought by recruiters is usually poverty, or the need for money to support a family. Attendance a t religious ceremonies, and a moderate dislike for the United States or Israeli policies in the mid – east, is also required.
During the recruitment phase a personal visit from a local community’s mullah or ayatollah is usually arranged. Such a visit is considered a very great honor. The prospective recruit is told that his faith is about to be rewarded, that Allah has spoken to the religious leader specifically about this individual and offered him a great honor. Not to be overlooked is the several thousand dollars that will be provided to the member’s family after the operation has taken place. The enhancement of the family’s prestige is not to be gainsaid, either.
If the recruit is overwhelmed, and agrees, he goes into the training phase. He is taken to a training center where he is placed with about a score of other Shiite believers. The recruit is cynically misled about these companions. He is told that all of them are being considered for the same honor and they have all agreed to sacrifice their lives for Islam and the assurance of a direct path to Paradise. The twenty other members of the “class” are, in fact, only there as cheerleaders, to go through readings of the Koran and praise the honors being “offered” them. The recruit will be kept separate from his family, the news media, and friends. Very little sleep or rest is allowed. One defecting bomber suggested that drugs had been covertly given to him, in his rations. Then the big day arrives; the member is told that he has been selected for the honor, over all the others.
The plan will be simple. Drive a vehicle into a stationary position, or convoy, and detonate the payload of Semtex or C-4. A switch will be placed in the cab of a truck, or the front seat area of the car, to initiate the bomb. Flip the switch and go to Paradise. Sure. On an examination of one such truck I found the “detonator” wires led from the front seat to the springs in the rear seat! There was no connection to any explosives, no firing train. We discovered that, after several botched attacks, the planners had started rigging a remote control detonating devices to vehicles. The blast is actually set off from a following car, over a block away.
I would suggest that with recent events, a more in depth study is needed of the Shiite sects; especially those who trace their roots back to the Elbruz Mountains in Persia, where they were known as the “hashashin” or “assassins”. Yes. They still do exist today. The average Shiite would no more hijack an airplane nor beat a prisoner to death than he would carry a pigskin wallet – unless he has been granted dispensation, or given orders, by his personal religious leader.
Because of their background these people seem full of unfathomable contradictions. They are capable of extreme violent acts while – at the same time – ordering a birthday cake for a hostage and leading the hostages and hijackers in singing Happy Birthday. They have become violent because hostage children were not given sufficient fruit juice. They have been perfect gentlemen to pregnant women and handicapped individuals. On the other hand they have shot aircraft service personnel for no apparent reason and have severely beaten hostages for not showing proper courtesy or committing cultural mistakes, such as speaking to them while making direct eye contact.*
Debriefings have shown that the Shiites often have a hard time in carrying out executions of selected hostages. Numerous examples exist of hostages being shot at and missed – from very close range. There are even examples of victims being thrown into the back of a vehicle and simply exiting by opening the opposite car door, leaving the terrorists stunned and unable to improvise.
People dealing with Middle Easterners, either in teaching or law enforcement, must realize that like the PLO, the Islamic community is fragmented into a plethora of sub-sects. Not only do you deal with Shiites from Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, but Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia, Sufi Moslems or dervishes of Turkey and Egypt, and Sunnis from the rest of the world. All do have certain concepts in common – in much the same way Christians do – and these represent the “Pillars of Islam.”
But when Koranic law is interpreted by Islamic scholars who have a political bent, good people become victims – among the devoted Shiites.
*(Making eye contact is O.K. but Shiites feel uncomfortable unless they have been properly introduced. They tend to see this as a threat, or overt aggression. Even worse is speaking to someone with arms folded across the body, or slouched down in a chair with feet projecting in the aisle, toward the Moslem. Also, speaking to a Moslem with your hands in your pocket is disrespectful.)
Paul Copher is an analyst on PLO/Shiite matters as well as White Supremacist groups in the U.S. He was trained as a police officer in Tucson, Arizona, was an instructor at the USAF Special Operations School, an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and was active in counterterrorism operations in Turkey, Iran, and other Mid-east locations. He can be reached through his email at PaulC76504@aol.com.