Sacred texts can be selectively cited to expunge self-sanctions against atrocity

Evidence

ISIS has expunged any moral self-sanctions against the most barbaric actions with supposed Quranic justifications for their atrocities. They construe attacks by their opponents as war against God. To crush any resistance to their ruthless rule, they staged public crucifixions (Spyer & al-Tamimi, 2014), citing passages from the Quran stating that crucifixion is an appropriate punishment for those who “wage war on God and his messenger” (Spyer & al-Tamimi, 2014). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2441

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: This is the theological engine of moral disengagement — the expunging of self-sanctions by rearranging which verses count as governing. It’s the concrete case of a mechanism Bandura theorizes abstractly, dense enough to sit with.
• XREF: Directly instantiates moral justification + sanctification — the first disengagement mechanism in chapter 1. Also echoes the ‘complaints about immodesty’ reading on how texts get selectively pressed into service for political ends.