Suicide bombers. (warning images may distress readers)
One of the more disturbing factors in the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iraq is the spectacle of suicide bombers. Many including mums and children have been used or have volunteered to be used as sacrifice for the so called greated good. Some claim that it is a message from god that calls them to sacrifice themselves. Of course it is not just Iraq and Al quaeda it also has occurred in Palestine and Israel on the West Bank and in Sri Lanka.
I for one have been both aghast and curious as to what makes someone commit suicide in such adeliberate and calculated way. I an allegiance to a cause. I figure some of my fellow hubber's have thought the same way so I have endeavoured to answer a few of the questions and better inform myself and you in the best way I can.
In the conflict in on the West Bank for instance the Palestinian Red brigade has sought to use suicide mission in order to get there plight recognised across the world.
In other words, religious rhetoric may help persuade attackers that their cause is either necessary or noble, and that glorifies or renames suicide as martyrdom, but it does not explain why suicide attackers choose that particular tactic.
In October, 2005, Dr. Pape was interviewed at a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life about his research conclusions on whether Islamic extremism motivates terrorism. Pape discussed his findings with is interviewer:
The conventional wisdom is that suicide terrorism is motivated by religious fanaticism - religious hatred combined with the promise of a martyr's paradise in the hereafter. What does your own research suggest? The conventional wisdom is mostly wrong. Suicide terrorism is not mainly the product of Islamic fundamentalism or any other evil ideology independent of circumstance. I have studied 462 suicide terrorists; over half are secular. The world leader in suicide terrorism is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka - they're a Marxist group, a secular group, a Hindu group. The Tamil Tigers have committed more suicide terrorist attacks than Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Instead, what more than 95 percent of all suicide terrorist attacks since 1980 have in common are not religion, but a specific secular goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Chechnya to Kashmir to Sri Lanka to the West Bank
Many western readers may think that the Act is justified in islamic law but this is not so...
Suicide is forbidden. "O ye who believe!... [do not] kill yourselves, for truly Allah has been to you Most Merciful. If any do that in rancour and injustice, soon shall We cast him into the Fire..." (Qur'an 4:29-30).
Further
The Qur'an admonishes those who oppress others and transgress beyond the bounds of what is right and just. "The blame is only against those who oppress men with wrongdoing and insolently transgress beyond bounds through the land, defying right and justice. For such there will be a chastisement grievous (in the Hereafter)" (42:42).
Harming innocent bystanders, even in times of war, was forbidden by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This includes women, children, noncombatant bystanders, and even trees and crops. Nothing is to be harmed unless the person or thing is actively engaged in an assault against Muslims.
The predominant theme in the Qur'an is forgiveness and peace. Allah (God) is Merciful and Forgiving, and seeks that in His followers. Indeed, most people who spend time on a personal level with ordinary Muslims have found them to be peaceful, honest, hard-working, civic-minded people.
