ASSALAM O ALAIKUM
Description: A brief outline of the
different types of Satanism and their beliefs.
What
exactly is Satanism? The Google dictionary defines it as, “The worship of
Satan, typically involving a travesty of Christian symbols and practices, such
as placing a cross upside down. The website wordnetweb.princeton.edu
defines it as belief in and reverence for devils (especially Satan) and
thefreedictionary.com adds that it is profound wickedness. Religious
Tolerance, the Canadian website dedicated to accurately explaining the full
diversity of worldwide religious beliefs states that, “There are probably
dozens of different religious belief systems and practices that have been
called Satanism”.
Thus it becomes almost impossible to estimate just how
many Satanists there are in the world. Depending on the definition and
what groups comply with each different definition, the total number of
Satanists could be anything from several thousand, to millions or even
more. In North America estimates range from ten to twenty thousand
Satanists from several different belief systems and organisations.
According to Statistic Canada, the 1991 census found only 335 Canadians
identifying themselves as Satanists. It is also almost impossible to open
up dialogue with, or gather statistical evidence from each of these groups
claiming to practice some sort of Satanism.
The Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey in 1967,
generally regard themselves as strong Atheists, Agnostics, or Deists and
membership numbers are kept secret. However the Church of Satan is quite
open about their beliefs and practices. They describe themselves
as, “The first above-ground organization in history openly dedicated to the
acceptance of Man’s true nature—that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that
is indifferent to our existence. To us, Satan is the symbol of pride,
liberty and individualism.”
According to David Shankbone who interviewed the
Church’s high priest Peter Gilmour,”LaVey’s teachings are based on
individualism, self-indulgence, and ‘eye for an eye’ morality, with influence
from Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand; while its rituals and magic draw heavily
from occultists such as Aleister Crowley.”
His article makes it quite clear that members of the church of Satan do
not worship, nor believe in the Devil or a Christian/ Islamic notion of
Satan. Their Satan has nothing to do with Hell, demons, pitchforks,
sadistic torture, buying people’s souls, demonic possession, performing
miracles, human sacrifices, cannibalism, and profoundly evil deeds.
One definition of Satanism states that, “Satanism is the
utter rejection of the spiritual way of theistic religions, and the honest
admittance that we are just animals who evolve as any other complex
system.” On the other hand, what about the religious Satanism that has
become the stuff of nightmares and movie plots? Does it actually exist? The
church of Satan states openly that, “Satanism respects and exalts life.
Children and animals are the purest expressions of that life force, and as such
are held sacred and precious...” Thus, as mentioned above, no human
sacrifices. The majority of Satanists simply follow a lifestyle involving
the Satanic statements and rules, while avoiding the Satanic sins.
Many authors, almost all conservative Christians, have
described alleged satanic rituals. They almost always involve desecration
of stolen religious symbols, black masses, inverted crosses or reciting prayers
backwards. This is pure fiction that can be traced back to books
written during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance periods particularly The
Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches Hammer). In the 15th
and 16th centuries the Catholic Church theorized that Satan worship
existed and was a massive threat. This gave rise to the Witch burnings
that have come to be termed the burning times or alternatively the female
holocaust. Belief about Satanism turned into an imaginary religion that
was the opposite of Christianity. These elements continue to surface
today in conservative Christian anti-Satanic and anti-Wiccan hate literature.
We have established so far that there is a religion
known as Satanism and that most, if not all of the adherents, are hedonist
atheists intent upon acting upon their most basic desires. An anonymous
writer once said that Satanism was the religion of the American boardroom but
for the most part this does not involve any weird or evil practices because
most Satanists simply practice a lifestyle that involves indulgence and
gratification. A very small number of individuals have drawn on the vast
amount of anti-Satanic literature and created their own version of Satanism
that does include anti-Christian practices.
Consequently, where does this information leave Muslims?
As believers we understand that Satan exists and is actively trying to lead
people away from God. He may or may not be involved in the Satanic
religion that claims to have no gods or to worship such a manifestation of
evil. However, Satan’s work is very obvious in a number of groups
or categories of people who do claim to worship him. These groups include
psychotic murderers and serial killers who try to use the defence of “the devil
made me do it” and abusive pedophiles who in several cases have used
satanic settings in order to make the victim’s story unbelievable to the
authorities. Evidence in the United Kingdom has uncovered at least three
cases where predators pretended to be Satanists in order to better control
their victims.
Some musicians pretend to be Satanists in order to gain
fame and notoriety and there is also a group known as satanic dabblers.
The dabblers are typically rebellious, attention seeking teenagers or young
adults that have created their own form of Satanism from usually unreliable and
fictional sources. They are often responsible for graffiti, cemetery
vandalism and the ritualistic killing of small animals. Both groups may
be pretending to be something they are not but they are living life perilously
close to dangerous ground. A person who worships or tries’ to revive
the worship of the ancient Egyptian god Seti is also risking their sanity and
in some cases their lives.
Satan, the devil, Lucifer,
Seti or whatever he is known by is not a force to be trivialised. He has
an agenda and in the next article we will look at how seemingly benign
practices can lead a person into committing the most dangerous of major
sins. The church of Satan may be little more than an organised group
where members can engage in otherwise frowned upon behaviour but how many members
do really “deal with the devil”? Those who use the term Satanism to cover their
innate depravity may find that Satan has been leading them by the collar down a
pathway to destruction.
is the Kabbalistic square of
the Sun. 666 is the all-important solar chakra. The true meaning of the "Temple of Solomon" is the TEMPLE OF THE
SUN. "Sol" "Om" and "On" are all words for the Sun. "Sol" is the Latin word
for the Sun and is close to the English word "soul." "Om" is a name given by the
Hindus to the Spiritual Sun and "On" is an Egyptian word for Sun. The symbolism
of the Temple of Solomon was stolen by the Jews and made into a fictitious
character, as with the fictitous nazarene and nearly everything in the
Judeo/Christian Bible. For more information: 
