Religion has always been a part of criminal organizations, criminal street gangs, organized crime, unorganized crime groups, or individuals involved in criminal gang like behaviors; historically, presently and most likely for the foreseeable future.

Historically we can reference as far back as the most ancient recorded history to find examples of a blending, like poison and ceremonial wine, of religion and criminal activities.

According to The stories of the 20th dynasty (B.C.) criminals as translated from La vie quotidienne en Egypte by Pierre Montet, “…Not just common people committed tomb robberies. Times were difficult during the late Ramesside period. The administration was in disarray and salaries rarely paid on time, if at all. Social upheaval and civil war brought with them sharp price rises so it is no wonder that scribes and priests involved themselves also in this “redistribution of wealth”. One such gang included a priest named Pen-un-heb, and four Holy Fathers of the God, Meri and his son Peisem, Semdi and Pehru. They began by stealing the golden necklace of a statue of Osiremire Sotepenre, which after melting, left them with four deben and six kit of gold which the old Meri divided between them. Another gang of priests, scribes and herdsmen robbed the House of Gold of Osiremire Sotepenre. The priest Kaw-karui and four of his colleagues occasionally removed some gold with which they bought grain in town. A herdsman after threatening the priests, received a bull they had bought for five kit (about 45 grammes) of gold. A scribe, Seti-mose, who overheard their quarrel, blackmailed them and extorted four and a half kit of gold.” [1]

In times of Roman and Jewish antiquity the relationship of religion and crime was no less malignant as stated by Martin Goodman, Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilisations (2008,:407) as he talks of sicarii practising “terrorism within Jewish society”.[2] “Sicarii (Latin plural of Sicarius ‘dagger-men’ or later contract-killer, Hebrew) is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE (AD), (probably) to an extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from Judea using concealed daggers (sicae). The Sicarii used stealth tactics to obtain their objective, concealing under their cloaks a sicae, or small dagger, from which they received their name. At popular assemblies, particularly during the pilgrimage to the Temple Mount, they stabbed their enemies (Romans or Roman sympathizers, Herodians, and wealthy Jews comfortable with Roman rule), lamenting ostentatiously after the deed to blend into the crowd in order to escape detection. Literally, Sicarii meant “dagger-men”.

[1]  La vie quotidienne en Egypte by Pierre Montet

[2]  Martin Goodman, Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilisations (2008,:407)