James R. Lewis - Sacred Suicide

The label Suicide Cults has been applied to a wide variety of different alternative religions, from Jonestown to the Solar Temple to Heavens Gate. Additionally, observers have asked if such group suicides are in any way comparable to Islamist suicide terrorism, or to historical incidents of mass suicide, such as the mass suicide of the ancient community of Masada. Organizationally and ideologically diverse, it turns out that the primary shared trait of these various groups is a common stereotype of religion as an irrational force that pushes fanatics to undertake acts of suicidal violence.

Offering a valuable perspective on New Religious Movements and on religion and violence, Sacred Suicide brings together contributions from a diverse range of international scholars of sociology, religious studies and criminology.

Series Editors:

James R. Lewis, University of Troms, Norway

George D. Chryssides, University of Birmingham, UK

The popularity and significance of New Religious Movements is reflected in the explosion of related articles and books now being published. This Ashgate series offers an invaluable resource and lasting contribution to the field.

Edited by

JAMES R. LEWIS
University of Troms, Norway

CAROLE M. CUSACK
University of Sydney, Australia

ASHGATE

James R. Lewis and Carole M. Cusack and the contributors 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

James R. Lewis and Carole M. Cusack have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Sacred suicide / edited by James R. Lewis and Carole M. Cusack.

pages cm. -- (Ashgate new religions)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4094-5086-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4094-5087-0 (ebook) ISBN 978-1-4724-0665-1 (epub) 1. DeathReligious aspects. 2. SuicideReligious aspects. 3. SuicideReligious aspectsIslam. 4. Cults. I. Lewis, James R., editor.

BL504.S225 2014

202.3dc23

2014009723

ISBN 9781409450863 (hbk)

ISBN 9781409450870 (ebk-PDF)

ISBN 9781472406651 (ebk-ePUB)

James R. Lewis and Carole M. Cusack

Nachman Ben-Yehuda

Thomas Robbins

Henrik Bogdan

Rebecca Moore

Carole M. Cusack

John Walliss

Jan A. Ali

Mattias Gardell

Katarina Plank

Lorenz Graitl

Helen Farley

James R. Lewis

Lynn S. Neal

Christopher Hartney

Jan A. Ali is a sociologist of religion, with special reference to Islam. He is a Senior Lecturer in Islam and Modernity in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and concurrently holds a post as the Community and Research Analyst in the Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney. Jan Ali is author of Islamic Revivalism Encounters the Modern World: A Study of the Tablgh Jamat (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2012).

Nachman Ben-Yehuda is a Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He is the author of The Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel (1996), Theocratic Democracy: The Social Construction of Religious and Secular Extremism (2010), Sacrificing Truth (2002), Betrayals and Treason: Violations of Trust and Loyalty (2001), and Atrocity, Deviance and Submarine Warfare: Norms and Practices During the World Wars (2013).

Henrik Bogdan is Professor in History of Religions at the University of Gothenburg. His main areas of research are Western Esotericism, New Religious Movements, and Freemasonry. He is the author of Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation (2007), editor of Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley: A Correspondence, by Aleister Crowley and David Curwen (2010), co-editor of Occultism in a Global Perspective (2013), Sexuality and New Religious Movements (2014), and The Brill Handbook on Freemasonry (2014).

Carole M. Cusack is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Conversion Among the Germanic People (1998), Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (2010), and The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations (2011). She is the editor (with Christopher Hartney) of Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Garry W. Trompf (Brill, 2010) and (with Alex Norman) Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production (Brill, 2012).

Helen Farley is a Senior Research Fellow in Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland. Her research interests include the cultural history of various currents of esoteric thought, particularly tarot. She is actively involved in researching religion and technology and was the project leader of the Religion Bazaar project in Second Life. She also is Senior Lecturer at the Australian Digital Futures Institute at the University of Southern Queensland where she researches educational technology for teaching and learning.

Mattias Gardell is Chair of the Department of the History of Religions at Uppsala University, Sweden. His publications include In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (1996), Rasrisk (1998; 2003), Gods of the Blood. White Separatism and the Pagan Revival (2003), Bin Laden i vra hjrtan. Globaliseringen och framvxten av politisk islam [Bin Laden in Our Hearts. Globalization and the Rise of Political Islam] (2005), Tortyrens terkomst [The Return of Torture] (2008), Islamofobi [Islamophobia] (2010).

Lorenz Graitl is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies. He received his PhD in sociology from Freie Universitt Berlin. His first book, Sterben als Spektakel: Zur kommunikativen Dimension des politisch motivierten Suizids (VS Springer, 2012), discusses the historical genesis and communicative aspects of different forms of political suicide, as well as corresponding discourses of legitimization. Currently he is working on the mediatized dispute over Telangana.

Christopher Hartney is a Lecturer in Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney where he teaches on religion and violence and religion and film. He specializes in the study of new religions in East Asia and Vietnam, and has published on Caodaism, Vietnams largest indigenous religion. He also works on aesthetics and is the Australian delegate to the International Congress of Aesthetics. He is co-editor (with Alex Norman) of the journal Literature and Aesthetics