The Assassins

The Assassins 
 By Charles Moscowitz 
web posted September 17, 2001 

 The Islamic terror network, the one which just shoved a dagger into our hearts, has astonishing similarities to an ancient Islamic terror sect known as the Assassins, founded by Hasan bin Sabah, 1094. The modern term "assassination" is derived from their name. During the Crusader period, they became famous for their policy of using murder as a ritualistic tactic of terror. Like their modern counterparts, the Assassins indoctrinated their adherents into believing that murder was a religious duty. The Assassins were also known as the "Hashshasin" or hashish smokers. Their adherents would smoke hashish as a means of preparing for their missions of murder. 

 In 1094, Hasan bin Sabah, a friend of the great Persian poet Omar Khayyam, established himself in a mountain fortress on the Caspian Sea called Alamut where he would cultivate a violent personality cult. According to Nesta Webster, a source that, admittedly, should be approached with a grain of salt, "The final object was domination by a few men consumed with the lust of power under the cloak of religion and piety, and the method by which this was to be established was the wholesale assassination of those who opposed them." The Assassins, a tightly knit secret society, established a pyramidal structure of organization and initiation that would later be imitated by Freemasonry and most other fraternal orders. According to Webster, the higher initiates into the order of the Assassins believed that "Nothing is true and all is allowed." Jim Marrs, the author of "Rule by Secrecy" states that a belief of the Assassins was that "everything in creation, including humankind, is part of a universal whole, a concept along the lines of Einstein's unified field theory." 

The atheistic and amoral Assassins believed in the concept of might makes right, an early version of Social Darwinism. They, like their modern counterparts, cloaked themselves in Islam while in fact they, like their modern counterparts, sought to subvert and destroy Islam. Hasan, according to the writings of Marco Polo, built elegant palaces with lush landscaping in a hidden valley. Future recruits would be drugged, taken to the palace where they would spend several days in the company of opulence and beautiful women, and then, after having been drugged again, returned to their ordinary lives. After a couple of repeat visits, Hasan would promise his new recruit this "paradise" eternally. The gateway to this paradise, however, was through assigned murder. This sounds an awful lot like the belief of today's modern Assassins. I wonder if their modern handlers are taking their new young recruits to some modern paradise, perhaps under the influence of hashish or some other drug, with the same promises in exchange for suicide. It certainly seems familiar and entirely plausible. 

 The Assassins, at their pinnacle of power, held great influence over most of the rulers of the Middle East. This was accomplished through spectacular acts of violence and maintained through a threatening network of terror cells. The Assassins had no particular loyalty to Islam as they allied themselves with the Crusader Knights Templars in their war against the Saracens. They were early practitioners of what is presently called "realpolitique." Total power was the goal and unspeakable violence was the means. The Assassins would eventually be weakened by their own murderous nature, as Hasan would be assassinated by his son, Mohammed, who would in turn be poisoned by his son, who had learned of a plot by his father to kill him. Mongol hoards would eventually finish them off altogether. 

Perhaps our government should consider these terrorists, who just assassinated many of us, as a modern version of the Assassins because that is exactly what they appear to be. Through violence and threats of violence, they are controlling many of the world's governments outright while others are trembling with fear. They operate as a secretive syndicate who employ assassination to terrorize anyone, including Muslims, who gets in the way of their power. They are probably involved in international drug trafficking and also probably employ secretive pyramidal organizational techniques. By understanding the nature and means of this subversive international conspiracy, our leaders should be able to thwart these modern Assassins as the Mongol hoards did to their predecessors.