DEVIANT SECTS OFFER OTHER FORMS OF VIOLENCE

We have already discussed in earlier chapters the existence in a number of countries of the world, and especially the United States, of superstitious cults that adhere to deviant belief-systems, and how such groups engage in acts of terror. These mystical groups destroy the order of society, encourage nations towards violence, and lead to killings and even suicides. Some of the best-known of these are: David Koresh and his followers who committed mass suicide, the Heaven's Gate cult who did the same, and the Aum Shinrikyo cult who harmed hundreds of people by releasing poison gas into the Japanese underground transit system.
In addition to these, however, every day in America are attacks perpetrated by unknown groups as well as mass suicide. The worst mass suicide so far was that of "The People's Temple" cult.
Established at the end of the 1970s, under the leadership of Jim Jones, this cult lived isolated from the rest of the world in a forest area in Southern America. Following a number of complaints, in 1978, US Congressman Leo Ryan visited the Jonestown area on a fact-finding mission. As Ryan was leaving Jonestown, 18 temple members who wanted to leave the cult tried to accompany him, at which point violence erupted. Cult members opened fire on those who attempted to leave it. Congressman Ryan, three journalists, and one of the departing members were killed. Eleven people were injured. A few hours after that incident, the leader of the cult ordered their members to commit mass suicide by drinking potassium cyanide. Children died first; babies were killed by poison squirted into their mouths with a syringe. Then more than 900 people, children included, poisoned themselves.43

David Koresh

By the 1990s, however, the group that attracted the most attention through mass death was the cult of David Koresh. When security units wished to inspect a farm in Texas on February 28, 1993, cult members opened fire on them. A siege that would last 51 days then ensued. When one member of the security forces tried to get into the farm on the 51^st day, smoke suddenly began rising. The security forces announced that David Koresh had set fire to the farm, and that booby traps installed in various parts of it had turned the place into an inferno, in which some 90 people burned to death.
Deviant cults again hit the headlines in 1997, when some 40 people wearing black T-shirts and sports-shoes committed mass suicide in the north of San Diego. Aged between 26 and 72, they had killed themselves out of a belief that the Hale-Bopp comet, which was then passing by the earth, would carry them to a higher level of evolution. This is how their ideas were expressed on their website:

Members of The Heaven's Gate cult believed that the Hale-Bopp comet would carry them to a higher stage of evolution, based on which they committed suicide in 1997. Below is the leader of the group, Bonnie Lu Trusdale.

The joy is that our Older Member in the Evolutionary Level above human has made it clear to us that Hale-Bopp's approach is the "marker" we've been waiting for. … Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion "graduation" from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave "this world" and go with Ti's crew. (Ti refers to Bonnie Lu Trusdale a cofounder of the cult who died of cancer in 1985)44
These accounts may seem to have very little to do with the lives of most people who are reading this book. Yet, nobody should be deceived by that fact as we have only considered three examples in detail. A large number of deviant cults and organizations are influencing young people in many countries of the world. The fact that some people regard these movements as being far removed from themselves does not mean that they are not causing terrible harm to individuals and to society as a whole. On the contrary, they reveal the different forms the strife of the Antichrist can take and how widespread it actually is.

The Japanese Cult's Underground Attack

The harm that such cults cause for the lives and property of their members is by no means the only threat they pose. The deviant ideas and lifestyles promoted by these cults also damage the very fabric of society. From time to time, some of them organize attacks directly aimed at the civilian population. One recent example of this was the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, and its release of poison gas into a Tokyo metro station. The cult was also held responsible for a similar gas attack in Matsumoto near Tokyo, in which seven people died and 144 were injured.

According to the teachings of the leader of the cult, Shoko Asahara, a person can only cleanse his soul by killing. World domination is only possible by implementing the violence that he teaches his followers. Acts that normal people would regard as cold-blooded, are for the members of the cult true examples of morality.
The first target of the attacks, which began in 1994, were the judges who had filed charges against the cult and lived in accommodations provided by the Ministry of Justice . The first attack resulted in seven deaths. At the same time, the cult had begun the construction of a 70-ton capacity sarin gas production facility, on the orders of Asahara, who also instructed that 1,000 automatic rifles and a million bullets be manufactured. With the help of Russian experts hired by the cult, there were also efforts being made to construct a kind of nuclear weapon. Also within Asahara's sphere of activities were kidnappings and murder, especially of lawyers and public prosecutors opposed to the cult's activities.

Members of the Aum sect, who believe that man can only cleanse his soul by killing, were responsible for the deaths of 12 people, and thousands of others injured, when they released poison sarin gas into the Tokyo underground transit system.

The attack on the underground system resulted in a much more severe reaction against the cult. Thousands of commuters on their way to work were affected. Twelve people died and more than 5,000 received treatment in hospital, and the attack became a terrifying example of the threat such groups now pose to the public.
As we have seen from the above examples, any kind of immorality is to be expected from groups that develop their own beliefs far removed from the morality of religion. The members of such organizations are wholly capable of any kind of deviance, from drug abuse to theft, and from kidnapping to torture, though they often only end up in bringing an end to their own lives.
One must never forget that it should come as no surprise that people who do not believe in God, have no fear of Him, and refuse to recognize true morality, engage in such acts of violence. That is because, they do not believe they will have to account for their deeds, nor that they will receive their just due in the Hereafter. In addition, they would probably adopt entirely inappropriate or false beliefs on the subject of life after death, all in accordance with their desires. The only true path however, is that revealed by God to His servants. Anyone who knows of the religion of God, and lives by it, is moderate and well-balanced. Furthermore, in the Qur'an, God has commanded man to think and use his reason. It is thus impossible for true believers to get caught-up in any belief system without listening to their consciences and employing their powers of reasoning. The faithful act in accordance with the dictates of their conscience at every moment in their lives, and behave reasonably. That, in turn, protects them from all forms of immorality and perversion. True believers are those who stay firmly rooted on the path revealed by God. It is clear, however, that such cults and organizations have long since turned away from that path.
There is no question that the acts of violence and terror we have been considering are not the only manifestations of terror in the world today. Very many terrorist organizations in a great many countries have for many years been spreading fear, terror, as well as leading to the deaths of many innocent people. These include the IRA, which for many years has been a major thorn in the side of the government of Great Britain; ETA in the Basque region of Spain, ASALA, the Armenian terrorist organization which for many years attacked Turkish diplomats serving abroad, and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Although they all have different ideological motives, all terrorist groups and people who support the use of violence, whether listed here or not, and whether they are aware of the fact or not, agree on one thing. That is, the rejection of religion. Whatever their ideology and world-view may be, the true reason why anyone turns to anarchy and violence is that they lack any beliefs and conscience to prevent them from doing so.