Allah & the 40 Virgins (Revisited)

Good Morning,

 Let’s call this one “Allah & the 40 Virgins Revisited”.  As you may recall, back on January the 18^th I wrote a letter with the theme focused on Islam and Suicide Bombers.  Admittedly it was done with a “tongue-in-cheek” approach, while maybe trying to expose some misconceptions.  In doing so, I may have propagated a few others. 

 I received feedback on this letter when it was posted on my blog from an individual we will call Kat, which prompted me to dig a bit deeper into the subject.  Kat is Muslim, always has been Muslim and gave what I consider very constructive feedback to my letter.  In that feedback, Kat suggested that to know more about this subject, I should consider reading the book by Robert Pape titled “Dying to Win”. 

 Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism arrived shortly after from Amazon.com and I set Plato and the “Republic” aside once again (I sometimes wonder if I will ever finish it) and started into the book.  Now I’m a slow reader and for me reading a book becomes a commitment that can take months.  I rarely will just sit and read, so most of my reading occurs in bed most every night just before I drop off to sleep.  It makes for some pretty interesting dreams, I can assure you.  Anyway sometimes it is only a page or two, which explains why it has taken me three months to read this one.  I know, those of you who read a book a week or even two may not understand that.

 So…I finished the book and in the process believe that with Kat’s and Robert’s help, I am much more understanding of what is involved in suicide terrorism.  So I will start with a few of myths and go from there:

• “Most Suicide Terrorist are poor and uneducated.”  This is not so as documentation shows most suicide terrorist are from a Working or Middle Cass Society and have at least what we would refer to as a moderate education.  The kind of people we would find in a “Grass Roots Movement” here at home. 
• “All Suicide Terrorist are Muslim extremists.”  This is also a misnomer as only maybe about 3% are in this category (Al Qaeda) while the rest are motivated by political causes, the number one and most prevalent of which is the “occupation of home soil by a foreign democratic government”.  The U.S. and Great Brittan in the Middle East are a good example and the most valid reason why Al Qaeda was able to get the support it needed to put together the 9-11 attacks and others.
• “The main motivation for suicide terrorist is martyrdom and going to paradise.”  Nothing could be farther from the truth, but martyrdom is used by Al Qaeda to justify suicide for “Jihad”, which otherwise is completely against the Muslim faith.
• “We can win The War on Terrorism”.  Sure and I will win the lottery the first time I play.  This is pure political hyperbole, because as long as we are occupying someone else’s homeland and imposing our beliefs and religion on them, there will always be terrorism and suicides for the cause of dispelling the occupying force (us).  It becomes the tool of the minor actor in the conflict.  When you do not have aircraft, tanks and a large military to fight with, you are forced to use whatever means available to make the biggest impact.  This is nothing new.

 While I still have difficulty condoning suicide terrorism as most Muslims as well, I do now understand the motivation for such an act much better and how a society can support through altruism, the players in this drama.  I think that many of my misconceptions have come from my otherwise cloistered and admittedly fortunate circumstances of not having to be involved in this type of conflict.  Of course the media here has helped with the myths as well.  To be faced with having to eradicate or expunge a foreign government from my homeland that threatens to change my chosen way of life or beliefs, would be a difficult situation to be in.

 So, I am now compelled to look at the suicide terrorist more as soldiers who have given all they can to the cause they believed.  Suicide terrorism is effective (that is why it is still done) with very little resource required short of total commitment.  When the attacks occur on the citizens of a country, it becomes, I believe, important for that country to evaluate the motivation behind the attacks and answer the difficult questions as to why it has come to this.      

 Sure there will always be the “Wackos” out there no matter what we do.  That has been going on for millennium.  Maybe we should be a bit more concerned about our citizens in this country and less about imposing our beliefs on others outside our borders.  I think it is essential that we do all we can as a nation to be more self-sufficient and break the foreign oil noose we have selfishly and greedily imposed on ourselves.  Get our butts out of there and then we can let the people of the Middle East sort out their own differences the way they have done before oil became an issue.

 You may want to read this book as I have only scratched the surface.

 Love, Dad

Footnote:

Oh yea and while I’m on this soapbox, let me say that I do not need a Jerusalem to believe in my God.  My God is omni-present, so physical things do not matter.  People are killing each other every day over that piece of soil.  Is a Christian less of a Christian, if they do not live in Jerusalem or “The Holy Land”?  Is a Jew less of a Jew, or a Muslim less of a Muslim if they live in the United States?  I don’t think so.  As for me, cleaving to such things only demonstrates insecurity in ones belief, but that’s just me.