Key Cult Features:

1) Like all cults Al Qaeda considers itself to be the upholders of the Absolute and Sacred Will of God or some Higher Power. They consider their ideology, doctrine or theology to be the ultimate Truth, which cannot be questioned or disputed. In many cases they claim to be the only authentic defenders of the real teachings of an existing theology and/or ideology, which has become degenerate in the hands of others. They misquote, twist and fabricate materials to claim to speak in the name of the original theory, founder or God and claim to be the sole spokesman of their beliefs on earth. They view everything in terms of black and white. Their ideology is totalistic. It is the perfect truth, and all other theories or faiths are degenerate and against Nature or God. Just as with all other cults Al Qaeda considers itself to be THE WAY and the only WAY! All those outside of the group are heretics and traitors to the Truth. Moreover, as such, it follows that they are beyond all the rule of all mortal laws or authorities.

2) Bin Laden and Al Qaeda believes themselves to be on a Sacred Mission to save or redress the sins and imbalances of the world. They are here to save or to reap retribution on the sinners or unbelievers and the cult members alone will be saved and be divinely rewarded because of their unswerving devotion to their beliefs and actions.

3) Similar to all cults, Al Qaeda has its living and dead Gurus who are beyond criticism and who are claimed to be the representative of supernatural forces or of directly carrying out God's wishes directly on Earth. The living Guru is perceived with a mystical aura and his words and sign are listened to with awe and absolute devotion.

4) Al Qaeda's inner structure is authoritarian, secretive and closed from society. Only the initiated are allowed into the inner circles after through testing and indoctrination. They are mostly encouraged to either recruit from or break themselves away from family and friends as it serves the interests of the group's tactics.

5) As in all cults, immersion into the inner circles of Al Qaeda takes place away from the polluting influences of degenerate society. This may be in country retreats or camps, where all day for weeks and months, they are subjected to the repetitious and hypnotic recital of prayers, texts, lectures, images, etc. These are classical methods of mind-control, brainwashing techniques, often supplemented with personal deprivation and physical regimes aimed at breaking down the person's psychological defenses. Then they can be detoxified and cleansed of any remnants of the old "soiled" and "contaminated" personality. The shell, which is left, can then be filled with the new group's "cult personality". For Al Qaeda, the Pakistani maddrasess serve in part in preparation of this process by pre-indoctrinating new child followers, who are then put through military and terrorist training. Afterwards, they attend cells where they meet and psychological control, indoctrination and monitoring of behavior and tasks is maintained.

6) No internal dissent or debate is allowed and absolute purity is demanded of members, sometimes accompanied by episodes of confessions, punishment and self-flagellation. Members become cloned to think and talk in "groupthink" or "grouptalk" with their own secret member language. They are easily recognized by the way they all monolithically respond to any external questions with rehearsed, mechanical replies.

7) Finally, like all cults, the greatest gift and honor of all honors is to be called upon by a higher member, especially if it is through or by the Guru himself, in order to carry out some supreme and difficult, self-sacrificing act, which brings with it the glory of external praise and adoration and awe on the part of the other members. For Al Qaeda this is the suicide mission. For which they will be rewarded by being immortalized and accepted directly into Paradise or Heaven.

If one aligns these criteria with any other major terrorists, militia or insurgency group, be they Hamas, the IRA or the Mehdi Army, then you will find that they will not pass the "cult test" by a long shot. It is precisely, Al Qaeda's character as a cult, which sets it apart from these other groups and which gives it its huge internal power. Its cult nature provides it with an enormous self-generating and regenerating capacity for revival and expansion. It is not a "Super-Terrorist" group, but a "Super-Cult" using terrorist methods. It is its cult nature that makes it so deadly and so difficult to combat and eradicate. It is a cult of suicidal, messianic, warrior martyrdom.

Unlike the other militant terrorist groups, including all those with a fundamentalist ideology, Al Qaeda alone has acted like a magnet to the disaffected and radicalized among the Islamic youth worldwide. Disgusting, as it may be, the unprecedented, spectacular audacity, of its world-shaking attack on 9/11 mesmerized those who wanted to attack American Imperialism. For those types it was a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring marriage of martyrdom, fearlessness and precision planning that dared to strike at the heart of the world's superpower. While its followers and even members were not conscious of the fact, it was precisely Al Qaeda's character as a cult, which gave the group the necessary powers of planning, perseverance, precision and ultimate ability to implement such an act. Indeed, no other type of organization could have carried it out this way.

When the Roman Empire was in decline, it was besieged by a "plague of Egyptian cults." In the social, economic and military impasse that heralded its implosion people began grasping in neurotic despair at all kinds of weird and wonderful elixirs in a search to find solutions and meanings to the crisis. In the conditions pertaining in the Middle East and internationally, Al Qaeda is a harbinger of a modern plague that is beginning. Already two million Americans are members of cults, nearly all of which are luckily socially harmless. However, more anti-social, terrorist cults will pop up from the most unexpected directions and in the most amazing forms in the coming years. They will become a principal cause of instability worldwide and one, which we will need to address squarely and honestly.