The perpetrators of the Paris attacks are less jihadis than criminals, just like most of the Islamic State

The perpetrators of the attack on Paris have confirmed what has been widely believed: Most of the Islamic State terrorists have nothing to do with religion or ideology; they are petty criminals and sociopaths looking for power and violence on the pretext of jihad. Islam is just a cover for their murderous intent. The French police has so far identified three persons as the brains behind the string of attacks on Friday the 13th. While 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud (also known as Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud and Abu Umar Al-Baljiki) is suspected to be the mastermind, the Abdeslam brother Salah, 26, and Ibrahim, 31, provided the logistics and executed the attacks. Abaaoud is suspected to have committed suicide on Wednesday when the Saint-Denis apartment he was holed up in was surrounded by French police. French security agencies believe Salah Abdeslam, who was on the run after the Friday attacks, also died in the police raid. His elder brother Ibrahim had blown himself up in a Paris restaurant after spraying bullets at dozens of people on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_2513534” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Undated image of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the presumed mastermind of the terror attacks in Paris. AP[/caption] Three things were common among Abaaoud and the Abdeslams. One, they lived in the Brussels ghetto of Molenbeek. Two, they recruited and radicalised their own brothers. And three, they were petty criminals arrested in the past for drug trafficking and other minor offences. Their lifestyles and history bust the myth of IS being a ‘state’ inspired by tenets of Islam and its recruits being devout Muslims who go to war with a bomb in one hand and the Quran in the other. When Abaaoud disappeared from his home in Belgium with  his 13-year-old brother and was later profiled by Dabiq, an IS propaganda magazine as one of its jihadis, his family was shocked that he had been radicalised. “They did not even go to the mosque,” their elder sister told The New York Times earlier this year. Contrary to the stereotype of an impressionable youth brainwashed by radical priests, Abaaoud had attended a Catholic school in Brussels. Along with Salah Abdeslam, who was on the run after the Friday attacks, he carried out a series of robberies and other petty crimes in Belgium. Salah Abdeslam — the on-the-run suspected eighth attacker  who may have died in the Saint Denis raid — is a longstanding associate of Abaaoud, with both men involved in gangs in Molenbeek, Belgium, carrying out robberies and other petty crimes. The two were tried in the same criminal case related to that activity five years ago, Belgian terrorism analyst Guy Van Vlierden told CNN. Though the exact sequence is not known, Abaaoud landed in Syria in 2014 and became close to IS chief Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi, who later used him for planning attacks in Europe. Eulogising the new recruit, Dabiq, the IS mouthpiece, had claimed that Abaaoud had returned to Belgium to set up a safe house with weapons. But, according to the Guardian, he was missing when police raided the house in Belgium and killed two of his associates. Like Abaaoud and his associate Salah Abdeslam, Ibrahim Abdeslam, who blew himself up at Comptoir Voltaire cafe, was a criminal. According to the police, he ran a bar in Molenbeek and used it for dealing in drugs. The involvement of youngsters with a criminal past and no evidence of theological leanings reaffirms the argument of critics who question the legitimacy of IS as a ‘religious movement’. Many believe it is just a rogue cult that has turned into a haven for Muslim criminals who hide behind the shield of ideology. In his blog for religionnews.com, Bruce B Lawrence, a scholar of Islam and author of the book ‘Who is Allah?’, had called IS a “ militia comprising Sham Muslims and real criminals”. Juan Cole, a blogger who closely follows ISIS, had argued that it is a myth that Daesh (acronym for IS) fighters are pious. Some may be. But very large numbers are just criminals who mouth pious slogans. The volunteers from other countries often have a gang past. They engage in drug and other smuggling and in human trafficking and delight in mass murder. They are criminals and sociopaths. Lots of religious cults authorise criminality. There are, of course, many others who believe religion plays a key role in drawing these psychopaths to the ISIS. “The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam,” Graeme Wood wrote in The Atlantic after studying the modus operandi and ideological beliefs of the IS.