On Democracy and Death Cults by Douglas Murray – A Review

Douglas Murray’s On Democracy and Death Cults is not a book that aims to comfort. It is a blunt, fact-driven, deeply unsettling examination of the violent forces confronting democratic societies in the 21st century — and of the moral evasions that too often follow in their wake. Above all, it is a powerful chronicle of the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, when Hamas militants followed by thousands of "civilian" Gazans launched a brutal assault that left over a thousand civilians dead and hundreds more kidnapped. Murray’s book is, in many ways, both reportage and indictment — and it succeeds on both fronts.

What stands out first is the level of detail and documentation Murray brings to the subject. This is not a work of broad generalizations or slogans. The book’s most compelling sections are those that reconstruct the October 7 atrocities hour by hour, drawing on eyewitness accounts, forensic reports, and the testimonies of survivors. Murray recounts the killings in the kibbutzim, the attacks on concertgoers, the kidnappings of families — including infants and the elderly — and the gleeful celebration of the violence by Hamas and its supporters. His narrative is measured and dispassionate, but that restraint only amplifies the horror. It is hard to read these pages without being shaken.

Murray’s central argument is that liberal democracies are in a state of denial about the nature of the ideological movements arrayed against them. Hamas, he argues, is not a nationalist liberation group seeking compromise or coexistence; it is a death cult, dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews as an end in itself. The book draws parallels to other extremist movements — from ISIS to al-Qaeda — and insists that democracy cannot defend itself if it refuses to name and confront such ideologies for what they are.

He is equally scathing about the Western response to the massacre. Murray reserves some of his sharpest criticism for Western media, universities, and political elites who, within days of the slaughter, shifted the conversation to “context” and “root causes.” He documents the moral gymnastics of those who minimized or justified Hamas’s actions, and he argues that such evasions betray not only Israel but the very values of liberal democracy. The tolerance of intolerant ideologies, he warns, is not virtue but suicide.

The book’s tone is unmistakably polemical — Murray is not interested in a false balance between democratic states and jihadist death cults — but its arguments are grounded in evidence, not rhetoric. He meticulously cites Hamas’s charter, statements by its leaders, and decades of terrorist activity. The result is a text that is both analytical and visceral: it informs, but it also provokes outrage and grief.

There are, however, limits to Murray’s analysis. His sweeping condemnation of Western progressives sometimes verges on caricature, and he has little patience for nuanced debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those seeking a balanced account of the region’s history will not find it here. Murray’s focus is narrower: the nature of Hamas’s ideology and the failure of democratic societies to confront it honestly. Whether one agrees with his broader politics or not, the core argument — that democracy must defend itself against totalitarian movements — is forcefully made and impossible to dismiss.

Perhaps the book’s greatest achievement is that it forces the reader to confront uncomfortable truths. The atrocities of October 7 are not isolated acts of violence but part of a larger worldview that glorifies death and annihilation. The Western instinct to explain away or relativize such evil, Murray suggests, is itself a symptom of a deeper cultural weakness. Democracies cannot afford such illusions if they hope to survive.

On Democracy and Death Cults is not an easy read, but it is a necessary one. It is deeply reported, morally uncompromising, and unflinching in its depiction of both atrocity and denial. Whether one admires or despises Douglas Murray’s politics, this book is a serious work that demands to be taken seriously.

Appendix: Reassessing the Author

Before reading this book, I regarded Douglas Murray as little more than a right-wing propagandist — a provocateur cut from the same cloth as Ben Shapiro and other Trump-aligned commentators. I expected polemic, not substance. And to be fair, Murray’s politics remain sharply partisan, and his rhetorical style will still alienate many readers. Yet On Democracy and Death Cults surprised me. It is well-documented, carefully sourced, and deeply researched. Whatever one thinks of his ideology, this book demonstrates that Murray is more than a political polemicist — he is also a serious journalist and an effective chronicler of one of the most horrific terrorist atrocities of our time.

Terrorists as Celebrities

In the remote resort town of Boquete in western Panama is a lovely little open-air Italian restaurant.  On the wall are picture of the owner and employees with celebrities from Panama and other countries.  Two caught my eye.  

The pictures were at least a couple of decades old. One showed Fidel Castro with three members of the kitchen staff. Another showed Yassir Arafat with a guy who may have been the chef.  

Boquete is 200 miles from the capitol of Panama.  It is 35 miles from the nearest airport. It has a large American expat community. Someone visiting Boquete is on holiday.  Looking at Castro and Arafat, I thought immediately of the oppressed millions they locked in poverty. But oppressors and murderers are also celebrities, so they are on wall. 

  

Transcript of HAMAS Terrorist Bragging About Murder--To His Parents

From the podcast Making Sense by Sam Harris:

There’s a piece of audio from October 7th that many people have commented on. It’s a recording of a cell phone call that a member of Hamas made to his family, while he was in the process of massacring innocent men, women, and children. The man is ecstatic, telling his father and mother, and I think brother, that he has just killed ten Jews with his own hands. He had just murdered a husband and wife and was now calling his family from the dead woman’s phone. Here's a partial transcript of what he said: 

“Hi dad — Open my ‎WhatsApp now, and you’ll see all those killed. Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!” 

And his dad says “May God protect you.” 

“Dad, I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her, and I killed her husband. I killed ten with my own hands! Dad, ten with my own hands! Dad, open WhatsApp and see how many I killed, dad. Open the phone, dad. I’m calling you on WhatsApp. Open the phone, go. Dad, I killed ten. Ten with my own hands. Their blood is on their hands. [I believe that is a reference to the Quran] Put mom on.” 

And the father says, “Oh my son. God bless you!” 

“I swear ten with my own hands. Mother, I killed ten with my own hands!” 

And his father says, “May God bring you home safely.” 

 “Dad, go back to WhatsApp now. Dad, I want to do a live broadcast.” 

And the mother now says, “I wish I was with you.” 

“Mom, your son is a hero!” And then, apparently talking to his comrades he yells, “Kill, kill, kill, kill them.” 

And then his brother gets on the line, asking where he is. And he tells his brother the name of the town and then he says “I killed ten! Ten with my own hands! I’m talking to you from a Jew’s phone!” 

And the brother says, “You killed ten?” 

“Yes, I killed ten. I swear!” Then he says, “I am the first to enter on the protection and help of Allah! [Surely that’s another scriptural reference] Hold your head up, father. Hold your head up! See on WhatsApp those that I killed. Open my WhatsApp.” 

And his brother says, “Come back. Come back.” 

And he says, “What do you mean come back? There’s no going back. It is either death or victory! My mother gave birth to me for the religion. What’s with you? How would I return? Open WhatsApp. See the dead. Open it.” 

And the mother sounds like she is trying to figure out how to open WhatsApp… 

“Open WhatsApp on your phone and see the dead, how I killed them with my own hands.” 

And she says, “Well, promise to come back.”

 

Field Guide to Domestic Terrorists: Boogaloo Boys

The Boogaloo Boys--terrorists in floral prints.

For my second terrorist group, I picked the Boogaloo Boys.  They are the newest terrorist group with a large following in America.  They are gun-loving fools who think they can tear down America and still have 5G phone service, toilet paper and dinners with mom.  

Their newness shows just how successful the last four years have been in promoting anarchy.  Every right-wing terrorist group has flourished under trump. they are his people.  

From the Anti-Defmation League:  The boogaloo movement is a developing anti-government extremist movement that arose in 2019 and features a loose anti-government and anti-police ideology. The participation of boogaloo adherents in 2020’s anti-lockdown and Black Lives Matter protests has focused significant attention on the movement, as have the criminal and violent acts committed by some of its adherents.

Before there was a boogaloo movement, there was the concept of “the boogaloo” itself: a slang phrase used as a shorthand reference for a future civil war that became popular in various fringe circles in late 2018. By 2019, people ranging from gun rights activists to libertarians and anarchocapitalists freely used the term “boogaloo,” urging people to be “boogaloo ready” or even to “bring on the boogaloo.”  The term itself didn’t specify a type of civil conflict, allowing different types of extremists to insert their own particular fantasies as the concept spread on numerous discussion forums and social media sites.

The term itself derives from a longstanding joke referencing the 1984 film Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, in which the first part of the film’s title is replaced by something else to suggest some sort of sequel.  When George W. Bush followed in his father’s footsteps to the U.S. presidency, for example, some people jokingly referred to it as “Bush 2: Electric Boogaloo.”

More ADL info here.

Key Points:

• The boogaloo movement is an anti-government extremist movement that formed in 2019. In 2020, boogalooers increasingly engaged in real world activities as well as online activities, showing up at protests and rallies around gun rights, pandemic restrictions and police-related killings.
• The term “boogaloo” is a slang reference to a future civil war, a concept boogalooers anticipate and even embrace.
• The ideology of the boogaloo movement is still developing but is primarily anti-government, anti-authority and anti-police in nature.
• Most boogalooers are not white supremacists, though one can find white supremacists within the movement.
• The boogalooers’ anti-police beliefs prompted them to participate widely in the Black Lives Matters protests following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020.
• Boogalooers rely on memes and in-jokes, as well as gear and apparel, to create a sense of community and share their ideology.
• Boogalooers have been arrested for crimes up to and including murder and terrorist plots.

The Atlantic magazine recently wrote about the Civil War dreams of the Boogaloo Boys.

Last time I wrote about the 3 Percenters