The Three Islamic Faces of Suicide Bombing
By AMIR TAHERI
Does Islam promote suicide bombing? Three answers seem to be circulating in
the Muslim world.
The first could be described as "yes-yes." It comes from the groups that
recruit and use suicide bombers. Their argument is: Because we regard Israel
as evil, we not only have a right but also a duty to fight it even in ways
that are otherwise evil.
The second answer came from the meeting of the foreign ministers of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference in Malaysia this month. That answer
could be described as "yes-but." The ministers in effect approved of suicide
bombing provided it was not used against their own governments. As for the
definition of terrorism--the purpose of the gathering--they said that was a
job for the United Nations. This was interesting because some participants
also claimed that the U.N. was a mere tool of the United States.
The third answer could be described as "no-but" and came from Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad. Since suicide is forbidden in Islam, the argument goes, we
cannot sanction such acts. At the same time we cannot condemn people who,
driven to desperation, use such methods.
All three answers are problematic. It is disingenuous to claim that suicide
bombers are ordinary youths who suddenly decide to sacrifice their lives to
kill some of the "enemy." Organizing and implementing a suicide attack is a
complex operation that requires recruitment, training, finance, logistics,
surveillance and postoperation publicity. An 18-year-old girl may fancy
herself as a suicide bomber but, alone, would not be able to organize an
operation.
Suicide bombing must, therefore, be regarded as a deliberate act, decided,
organized and promoted by politicians as part of a strategy. This is clear
from statements by Palestinian leaders who say they ordered a halt to such
attacks to encourage changes in Israeli behavior. When the changes did not
happen, suicide bombings resumed.
Yet Islam forbids suicide--without any ifs and buts. Life belongs to he who
grants it, not to mortal men who are its trustee. To violate that rule
amounts to a claim of divine authority for mortal man.
The issue becomes more complicated when would-be suicide bombers are
presented as martyrs. In Islam, a martyr is either one who suffers at the
hands of the enemies of Islam, often to the point of death, because of
faith--not politics--or someone who falls in a battle against aggressors.
The martyr does not want to become one. He knows that the highest value is
the preservation of life; he is put to death not by his own hands but by his
oppressors.
Islam celebrates life and promotes its enjoyment. There is no cult of
martyrs and saints in Islam. There also are no hermits, nuns, celibates and
no acquiring of merit through self-torture. Islam teaches man how to live,
not how to die. "The ends justify the means" has no place in Islamic ethics
or philosophy.
Islam as an existential reality is something else. There are politicians who
glorify suicide bombing. How representative are they? We will never know
until there is an atmosphere in which opinions are aired without fear and
without taqiyyah, or dissimulation.
Suicide bombing also is problematic on ethical grounds. Can we condone any
suicide bombing, including the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and at the
Pentagon? And what about suicide bombings conducted by opposition groups in
Iran and Iraq? If not, who decides which suicide bombing is good and which
bad? Can anyone decide to become a martyr? If not, who distributes martyrdom
certificates?
In any society the state on the basis of law must decide about life and
death. Even war has laws. This is why there can be no revenge killing by
individuals, no lynch mobs and no suicide in the service of any cause. And
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has condemned suicide
bombings, at least when speaking in English.
It is easy to make heroic statements about Palestinians from a distance, as
long as only the Palestinians and the Israelis pay with blood.
The key ethical questions for Muslims are these: Are you prepared to
practice what you preach? Can you become a suicide bomber? Are you prepared
to urge your offspring to become human bombs?
Ethics can explain, even understand, evil, but can never justify it, let
alone confuse it with good.
*Amir Taheri is a writer for Arab News, an English-language newspaper in
Saudi Arabia, where a version of this commentary appeared Tuesday. E-mail:
amtaher @aol.com. |
