What Explains the Presence of Evil?

I have long grappled with understanding the origins of evil. The events unfolding in Iran offer a stark example. Millions have taken to the streets, bravely demanding their basic human rights—clean water in their homes and the necessities to provide for their families. As it stands now, one U.S. dollar is valued at about 42,000 Iranian rials.

What they were really after, what caused a pain in their hearts with a yearning so incandescently profound was: freedom. Freedom to walk about the street without a hijab. Freedom to criticize their repressive government. Freedom to pray or to not, anyway they wanted.

These protestors have faced brutal violence; those wounded are often targeted again in hospitals by agents of the Basij or IRGC. Grief echoes through morgues and cemeteries, where vibrant young Iranians, full of promise, have been senselessly taken—like saplings cut down before their time.

The regime claims 5,000 deaths, which is a baseline. The National Union for Democracy in Iran uses the 40,000 number. Because of the internet blackout it is difficult to ascertain.

Whatever the staggering figure, it represents not only the cost of inflation but also the countless lives impacted by systemic oppression. The persistence of such evil raises profound questions: Is it rooted in the ambitions of those in power, or in the silent complicity of those who look away? While many hope for change, the daily reality is shaped by fear and resilience, as families cling to hope amid uncertainty and loss. The presence of evil, in this context, seems both overwhelming and deeply personal, touching every aspect of life for those who dare to demand dignity and justice.

Turning now to Africa: On February 3^rd, Islamist jihadists from Boko Haram entered the Woro village, massacring the entire village of 75 people. Men, women, children, setting the village aflame. This was a moderate Muslim village. Christians however, have been massacred with unparalleled relish. Since Boko Haram has launched, at least 40,000 Nigerians have been slaughtered. However, the Council on Foreign Relations Nigeria Security Tracker estimates 100,000 deaths since 2011.

In Sudan, since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces, (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, (Hemedti), is a paramilitary force that has waged war on the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Abdul Fattah al-Burhan.  The RSF arose out of the Janjaweed, which  was a radical armed force slaughtering Christians and non-extremist Arabs. The United Nation and the World Health Organization put the death toll at 40,000.

In the 43 per cent that Hamas controls of the Gaza strip, Hamas treats the informers for Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority security forces as traitors and security threats, subjecting them to summary executions, severe torture or arbitrary detention.

What gives anyone the license for such acts of indiscriminate acts of pure evil?

Rabbi Doron Perez is someone who knows the profound pain of losing a son during the war in Gaza.  He is trying, as well, to understand the nature of evil. He states that during the Holocaust, Battalion 101 of the German military was made up of middle aged, working class men from Hamburg. Very few were ideological Nazis. A mere 10 per cent chose not to murder Jews.  Between July 1942 and November 1943, the unit directly shot 38,000 Jews, deported 45,000 Jews to the extermination camps of Majdanek and Treblinka, and actively participated in the Aktion Erntefest in November 1943, one of the worst singly massacres on Jews in the entire war, resulting in the murder of an estimated 42,000 Jewish prisoners in concentration camps over two days.

There is a debate between Christopher Browning who emphasizes the societal pressure to conform to their peers, to obedience to authority and the numbing, brutalizing effects of war, a concept much like Hannah Arendt’s  “banality of evil” concept during the Eichman trials.

Daniel Goldhagan, on the other hand, argues that there is a strong ideological component to the perpetrators. That antisemitism had long been embedded in German culture, and that ideology, not mere conformity or obedience to authority was the compelling force. He points to the exceptional cruelty the murderers displayed and the initiative they took in carrying out their barbaric task.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called this “altruistic evil”, a dehumanizing psychology that people use to justify the murder of another human being. Many use the exclusivity of their faith as a justification to look at the “other” as not deserving of life.

What is the reason that ordinary people turn into mass murderers? How can people ever condone their mass guilt?  How can people compartmentalize this? Where is the individual’s moral responsibility? Where is the world’s?

And finally: Where are the mass gathering of university students condemning these acts of pure evil by the Islamic Republic of Iran, by Nigerian forces, by Sudanese forces and in Hamas controlled Gaza?

It is a tragic fact that we hear only silence. If it does not involve the Jews, it is simply not news.

Sarah N. Stern is Founder and President of EMET, a 21 year old think tank and policy institute in Washington, DC.