The language of evil has always had cultural power. Demons, the Beast, forbidden rites and the deliberate inversion of religious symbols can shock, attract, repel or help a person construct an identity against the moral world around them. None of that, by itself, makes someone dangerous.
That distinction matters in a Europe shaped by war, displacement and profound psychological strain. WHO’s 2026 appeal for Ukraine says an estimated 10 million people are affected by a mental health crisis. A separate 2025 survey found that more than 70 per cent of respondents had experienced symptoms of anxiety, depression or severe stress in the previous year, while only one in five sought professional help. Trauma on this scale changes communities, but it does not turn the traumatised into criminals. The American Psychological Association stresses that most people with severe mental illness are not violent.
The same caution is needed when discussing Satanism and occult traditions. The Church of Satan explicitly describes its Satanism as atheistic. Its language of self-deification — of becoming one’s own “god” — is presented symbolically, as radical individual responsibility rather than literal worship of a supernatural Satan. Aleister Crowley’s Thelema is also routinely caricatured by reducing “Do what thou wilt” to licence. O.T.O. sources instead frame the principle around discovering and accomplishing one’s True Will.
Yet religious and anti-religious symbols can become part of a violent person’s self-mythology. Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, was convicted in 1989 on all 43 charges against him, including 13 murders. Contemporary coverage described his devil-worshipping presentation and recorded him flashing a “devil sign” after the verdict. That does not establish Satanism as a cause of serial murder. It shows that a perpetrator can adopt transgressive imagery as part of how he narrates himself.
The case of Danyal Hussein goes further because the occult element was embedded in the plan itself. A 2025 review by the UK’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation says Hussein murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in 2020 after writing a pact with a “demon”, signed in blood, promising to sacrifice six women every six months in exchange for a lottery jackpot. The review notes his longstanding interest in Satanism and the occult, his activity on an occult forum, and his preparation for the killings.
There are also milieus where violence is not merely personal but ideological. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue describes the Order of Nine Angles as a decentralised Satanist neo-Nazi organisation whose texts promote extreme violence, rape and paedophilia as forms of transgression. This is not LaVeyan Satanism and not Thelema. Treating them as interchangeable obscures the very distinctions needed to understand danger.
The same is true online. The FBI warns that the 764 network and related violent groups target minors and vulnerable people with blackmail, manipulation and coercion. Victims can be forced into self-harm, sexual abuse material, animal cruelty and other acts designed to demonstrate control. Here the relevant category is not “occult” but organised exploitation and coercive violence.
Faith communities and secular institutions alike face a difficult task: recognising danger without reviving moral panic. The FBI’s behavioural guidance is useful precisely because it avoids judging beliefs. No single behaviour proves that someone is on a path to violence. Concern rises when several things converge: detailed violent fantasies, a named target, threats, fixation, research, planning, weapons acquisition or other preparation.
The moral line is therefore not drawn around a symbol. It is drawn around the human person. A disturbing image can remain an image. A doctrine can remain a doctrine. But when another person is reduced to an object, a sacrifice, a target or a means to someone else’s self-glorification — and when words begin turning into preparation — the question is no longer whether the imagery is offensive. It is whether someone is moving toward harm.