"How did he extract from Islam such perverted ideas? How could he imagine for one moment that God approves of us torturing people? These questions remained without answers until, some months later, I read a paper titled "The Psychology of the Executioner."

In it, the researcher argued that torturers can be divided into two groups. The first group are psychopaths, who behave aggressively without any moral restraints. The second group -- and these are the majority -- is made up of ordinary men who are psychologically normal and who, once they leave work, are upright and lovable, with good morals.
But to be able to torture people, two conditions are indispensable: submission and justification.
Without this justification, the police officer would not be able to continue torturing his victims because, at some point, he would be unable to cope with his pangs of conscience."

Excellent clip debby!

Thank you Rat

How could he imagine for one moment that God approves of us torturing people?

The same way the Catholics believed God approved of torture to identify witches. The Inquisition.

Debs, sometimes people need an excuse to do evil things. It seems "religion" has been providing this excuse for centuries. Sad isn't it?

Kappy,
I think if they move the justification away from themselves to something they perceive to be greater than themselves, then their conscience is clear.

That is a perversion of the concept of God.

It can be anything they want it to be debbski or so it seems , its convenient to interpret it to say what you want it to say , but it doesn't mean its right, the same can be said for Israel.