Let’s begin with some characteristics of cults. The following seem to apply to the International Solidarity Movement, Scientology, and/or fundamentalist Islam.

(1) The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader…
Was L. Ron Hubbard Mohammed in a past life? The idea of creating a self-serving religion seems to have occurred to both of them. (In contrast, Jesus never asked his followers to give him their money or, as demanded by Mohammed, sacrifice their lives for him.) Meanwhile, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s inner circle claims to see a green halo of light surround him when he speaks. We suppose they had better see it if they know what is good for them!

(2) Dissent, doubt, questions, and even attempts to leave the organization are discouraged or punished.

See Charlotte Kates’ comments on Scientology here. “I really see the EPF as a means of stripping people’s identity and independence from them, making them malleable, and creating a Scientologist capable of doing anything in the name of Scientology, able to disconnect from family without regret, able to serve on the RPF, able to blame himself or herself for all the wrongs he or she suffers without once blaming Scientology.”

Of course, apostasy is punishable by death under militant “Islam,” and people who break free of Scientology are denounced as infiltrators or religious bigots. We assume that anyone who tries to leave the ISM is punished by derision, ostracism, and so on.

(3) The group presents itself as being on a special, “chosen” mission to save humanity or a portion of humanity. Outsiders are derided as inferior, evil, and perhaps even worthy of extermination– a classic symptom of the organizational dysfunction known as groupthink.

The International Solidarity Movement is on a “special mission” to save the Palestinians, Scientology wants to “clear the planet” and fight Evil Galactic Overlord Xenu, and fundamentalist Islam wants to bring the entire world into the Dar-el-Islam, the House of Submission. The ISM refers to its opponents as Zionists and neocons (code for Jewish conservatives). Fundamentalist Islam, of course, refers to non-Muslims as infidels, kafirs, apes (Jews) and swine (Christians) who abide in the Dar-el-Harb (House of War).

(4) The group contends that its goals justify whatever methods it takes to achieve them.

The International Solidarity Movement has used the term, “by any means necessary” and taqqiya, or lying and deception, are acceptable in Islamofascism. The same goes for terroristic violence and mass murder.

Bob Penny adds regarding Scientology,

As Wakefield shows, Scientology creates a specialized environment within which anything can be made to seem true or reasonable or ethical. It is this insane environment, not any flaw in the individual person, which accounts for the apparently insane behavior which she and many others have described, just as similarly perverted environments trap otherwise good people in lynchings, gang behavior, Nazism, and other social ills.

(5) The group isolates members from family and friends, and installs itself as the member’s surrogate “family” and social network. This may be achieved through love bombing:

Love bombing is a coordinated effort, usually under the direction of leadership, that involves long-term members’ flooding recruits and newer members with flattery, verbal seduction, affectionate but usually nonsexual touching, and lots of attention to their every remark. Love bombing—or the offer of instant companionship— is a deceptive ploy accounting for many successful recruitment drives.

It is quite likely that ISM recruits are given this kind of attention and, as described above, it need not be sexual to get results. Young men are surrounded by seemingly-adoring women, much as the Old Man of the Mountains (the leader of the Assassins or Hashisheen) provided his drugged followers with female attention in a garden that was described as the Islamic paradise. Young women are similarly provided with male attention; we are quite sure that Rachel Corrie was bombarded daily with compliments and praise for everything she was doing for “The Cause.” This exploits the basic human need for affinity and affection, and may be sufficiently powerful to evoke reckless behavior such as standing in front of moving bulldozers.

Lee Kaplan’s The ISM is a cult and not to be tolerated shows the above principle at work in detail. The member is isolated from his/her family and friends. He/she is encouraged to associate only with ISM members, just as Charlotte Kates’ testimony shows how Scientology seeks to isolate members from the outside world. Close attention must be paid to the organization’s efforts to distance the recruit from her parents.

I was given magazines and more magazines to read, questioned about my staff-contract status with Philadelphia Org, and basically, recruited for the Sea Org. I tried to explain that I wanted to wait a while, that I wanted to go on staff at Philadelphia Org for a while, and go to college for a while longer. I also tried to tell them that my parents wouldn’t like it if I suddenly decided to drop everything and join the Sea Org at the CLO, but my every argument was brushed aside, my motivations questioned, my parents’ motivations questioned.

Surrounded by the recruiting posters emblazoned with slogans, as the Senior HAS and LC asked me, “Well, don’t you want to clear the planet? What is more important, college or saving the planet?” again and again to my every objection, I just wanted to wait a bit; the guilt still sank in. I felt my resolve to wait being suppressed; the only way to be “approved,” was to sign, and sign with the Sea Org, I decided I’d “handle” my parents, “handle” everything and everybody, quit school, move, all over a weekend break specially granted in my EPF, or Estates Project Force.

In both cases, we see how the cult controls the member by cutting off his/her contacts with family members and friends. The cult becomes the member’s new “family” and fills his/her need for affinity completely. The cult member then becomes willing to do almost anything to win the cult’s approval. Perhaps this is why Rachel Corrie was willing to kneel in front of a moving bulldozer, below the driver’s line of sight.
The ISM is a cult and not to be tolerated also contends that American ISM members might be more useful to the ISM dead than alive, just as Rachel Corrie was more useful dead than alive. The ISM and its terrorist handlers say so explicitly:

http://www.standwithus.com/news_post.asp?NPI=85 “Recently, the Director of the Solidarity Movement, George Rishmawi, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the recruitment of American student volunteers is useful to the Palestinian Movement because “if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.””

Joseph Smith, who was present when Corrie died and whose highest priority was apparently to take pictures, said, “”The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression.”

A Hamas terrorist said openly that Rachel was worth more dead than alive. “‘Her death serves me more than it served her,’ said one activist at a Hamas funeral yesterday. ‘…Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs.’” Making of a Martyr by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers.

Cults can be deadly. WhyAreTheyDead.net contends that Scientology kills. It is well known that fundamentalist Islam kills; it’s your one-stop shopping for pestilence, famine, war, and death. Finally, association with the International Solidarity Movement left Rachel Corrie dead and it could easily kill others as well. When you are more useful to your friends dead than alive, it is time to find new friends… quickly.

What is truly terrifying is that the ISM and Scientology may merge into a single entity whose mission will be to demand the Right of Return for all those PalestinThetan souls that were trapped in volcanos by Evil Galactic Overlord Zionu and his Evil Zionists!