Is this the only image of suicide terrorism?
Resident “Islam expert” Robert Spencer is at it again, using his skills of obfuscation to smear Islam. In a recent post, he claims “suicide for jihad” is nothing new in Islam:
Actually the idea of suicide in the cause of jihad is no innovation. It is founded upon Qur’an 9:111, which guarantees Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah. It is a phenomenon that is actually found throughout Islamic history, and is not new. In the 18th century John Paul Jones wrote about Ottoman sailors setting their own ships on fire and ramming the ships of their enemies, although they knew this meant certain death for them.
And centuries before that, the Assassins, Hashishin, went into their missions knowing that death was virtually certain, and energized by the promise of Paradise that had been made vivid for them in an artful scenario that was used as a recruitment tool: the prospective assassin would be given hashish and then taken into a garden full of beautiful women, and told that he was enjoying a taste of Islamic Paradise. Then to return to that Paradise, he was told that he had to go out and kill his victim, and be killed in the process.
Wow. Let us address the verse in question (9:111):
Behold, God has bought of the believers their lives and their possessions, promising them paradise in return, [and so] they fight in God’s cause, and slay, and are slain: a promise which in truth He has willed upon Himself in [the words of] the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Quran. And who could be more faithful to his covenant than God? Rejoice, then, in the bargain which you have made with Him: for this, this is the triumph supreme!
As outlined by the Quran, fighting in Islam is allowed in defense, and aggression is prohibited (2:190-193). Thus, those who “fight in God’s cause” in the verse are fighting in a battle to defend “those [civilians] who have been expelled from their homes” (22:40) by an aggressor. In this context, able-bodied men are called to defend the people with their lives. When one fights a battle, he tries to kill his enemy and avoid being killed himself. Spencer, however, claims that those who “slay and are slain” are actually committing suicide. Huh?
Suicide is when you take your own life: the death blow comes from your own hand. This is dramatically different than valiantly fighting the enemy in battle when the odds are heavily stacked against you, such that death is “near certain.” The former is suicide, the latter is not. Unless Robert Spencer is being un-American and claiming that the countless U.S. soldiers who have thrown themselves upon the enemy–facing “near certain death” by doing so–committed suicide? In fact, the medal of honor is routinely given to soldiers who throw themselves upon the enemy (thereby facing “near certain death”) to protect their fellow soldiers and advance their position.
There are several examples of this during World War II. For example, Private First Class Leonard Foster Mason received the medal of honor for “his exceptionally heroic act in the face of almost certain death.” The American soldiers were under heavy fire, and with total disregard for his own life, Mason ran out of his foxhole and killed five enemy soldiers. He was critically wounded in the arm and shoulder, and subsequently died. Today, he is remembered as a hero who fought and died for his country. Would Spencer like to claim that he committed suicide, and that the U.S. military has been using “suicide jihad” tactics during WWII?
Private George Phillips received the medal of honor because he “unhesitatingly threw himself on [a] deadly missile, absorbing the shattering violence of the exploding charge in his own body and protecting his comrades from serious injury.”
And let’s read about the bravery of Private First Class Harold Glenn Epperson who gave up his life for his country:
Determined to save his comrades, Pfc. Epperson unhesitatingly chose to sacrifice himself and, diving upon the deadly missile, absorbed the shattering violence of the exploding charge in his own body. Stouthearted and indomitable in the face of certain death, Pfc. Epperson fearlessly yielded his own life that his able comrades might carry on the relentless battle against a ruthless enemy. His superb valor and unfaltering devotion to duty throughout reflect the highest credit upon himself and upon the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
Another suicide jihad terrorist attack, I suppose? In fact, what about the American soldiers who took the island of Iwo Jima? According to historians, the Japanese fought tenaciously for the island, and only 216 out of more than 18,000 soldiers were alive at the end of hostilities. This invasion must have “meant certain death” for the scores of American soldiers who took part. Were these American soldiers “committing suicide”? What about the soldiers who took part in the invasion of Normandy? The odds against the Allied soldiers were tremendous, and it “meant certain death” for the scores of soldiers who valiantly chose to be on the front line. Did these American heroes also “commit suicide”?
Anyways, the Quran is crystal clear on suicide:
“And do not take a life that God has made sacred, except for just cause.” (17:33)
“And spend for the sake of God, and do not invest in ruin by your own hands. And do good, for God loves those who do good.” (2:195)
“And do not kill yourselves, for God has been merciful to you.” (4:29)
But I do know of a holy book that mentions (and seems to condone) suicide attacks. You may have heard of it, Spencer. It’s called the Bible. The Mighty Samson kills himself in order to kill three thousand men and women (civilians):
Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “O Sovereign LORD , remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. (Judges 16:26-30)”
Samson was one of the good guys in the Bible, and nowhere are his actions condemned. Far from it: he got the strength from God to do it. How are his actions any different than the Palestinian suicide bombers who blow themselves up in shopping malls to kill Israeli men and women? And in 1 Samuel 31:1-6, we have another good guy in the Bible killing himself rather than being taken alive by the enemy; in fact, it’s a group suicide–Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all of his men commit group suicide in this battle. Two can play at this, Mr. Spencer.
With regard to the example of the Ottomans ramming their ships, this is a technique that dates to antiquity. As a last resort (since they were going to lose/die anyways), the captain would order that they use the ship to ram the enemy’s. To use another American example, even civilian boats were equipped with this capability: the Seattle fireboat Duwamish, built in 1909, was designed to ram wooden vessels, as a last resort. More “suicide jihad” I suppose?
As for the Hashashin, or Assassins, they belonged to an extremely heterodox extremist sect of Islam. They did not believe in committing suicide, but rather put themselves in harms way to complete missions such that oftentimes they would be facing “near certain death.” In any case, even at that time the orthodox Muslims used to write about how crazy they thought these Hashashin were, so how can we take the most extreme example as indicative of the general rule? In fact, at the time of the Hashashin, there were the Crusaders. Would Spencer like to take the bloodthirsty Crusaders (who engaged in cannibalism and mass murder) as indicative of Christianity overall?
It seems that Spencer is becoming desperate; desperate to link anything to his fanciful imaginary Islam that is totally devoid from reality. Umm…nice try.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Inconnu thanks for such a logical rebuttal. I like very much your research, your language and the way you guys explain. God bless you for rebutting islamophobes.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:56 pm
U should also mention that suicide bombing until recently was mostly done by the Hindu Tamil Tigers. Moreover, the Jewish zealots killed themselves rather than be taken alive at the Masada seige by the Romans and some even committed suicide warfare against the Romans.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Also should be mentioned that there were Lebanese and Palestinian Christian suicide bombers in the 80′s and 90′s. A portion of suicide bombings against Israel were also done by Marxist/Communist groups.
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:47 pm
fuuny..robert spencer forgets to mention that it was the Ltte or the Tamil tigers that started suicide bombing and suicide vests…its common historical knowledge…goes to show he is just and ediot
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Robaby, while most Tamil people are Hindus, they also have significant populations of Christians and Muslims in both India and Sri Lanka.
The LTTE, the Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil separatist group that engaged in terrorist activities, was not a “Hindu group.” The tigers’ ideology on paper was mostly secular “Tamil nationalism”, but it also had anti-Hindu aspects to it such as its members shunning their given Sanskritic Hindu names to assume “native Tamil” (or Christian) ones, eg, Prabhakaran became Pirapaharan in later years.
One of the best kept secrets is that the LTTE had many ties to the Church. For example, most of the top cadre of the LTTE were Christians:
Prabhakaran aka Pirapaharan (Christian convert, a lapsed Methodist)
Tamil Selvam – Christian
Balraj – Christian
Pottu Amman (Christian)
Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony – Christian
Anton Balasingham – Christian
Thenmozhi Rajaratnam (nickname Dhanu), Rajiv Gandhi suicide bomber – Christian
While the LTTE’s terrorist methods should be squarely condemned, one cannot lose sight of the fact that the Sinhalese majority was egregiously persecuting their Sri Lankan Tamil minorities since the country became independent from the British, such as denying jobs and seats in educations institutes to Tamils. Rajiv Gandhi tried to broker a peace agreement in the 1980s, but it backfired, with Christian Thenmozhi taking his life in 1991.
Quote from Would-be mediators – Sri Lanka – Cover Story
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n26_v112/ai_17497865/
begin-quote
Duleep Fernando (no relation), newly elected president of the Methodist Church, also began visiting congregations in the North. Both leaders met with various Tamil leaders, including Velupillai Prabhakaran (a lapsed Methodist), who is now the virtual dictator of the rebel-held territory.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga was initially annoyed and then embarrassed by Christian clergy who met openly with the ostracized Tamil Tiger leaders.
I talked with Singalese Christians in the South who showed great empathy for the sufferings of the Tamil minority, whether Christian or Hindu, and condemned Buddhist-influenced national governments for pursuing an only Singalese need apply” policy since 1972 in school admissions, government jobs and distribution of official largesse.
end-quote
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Excellent work Inconnu!! This is brilliant stuff and completely exposes the deceitful and hollow methods Spencer employs
With regard to the picture above though, readers may find it a bit difficult to connect that to the arguments presented in the article. The caption of the pic asks “Is this the only image of suicide terrorism?” and the suggestion is that there are definitely other examples of suicide terrorism by groups who have nothing to do with Islam and ‘suicide terrorism’ is not something unique to Muslim groups only.
I notice though, that the main thrust of the article seems to be different than what the pic and the caption might suggest(and perhaps even the title!).
Am I right in thinking this? Have I got it wrong?
All in all, a very unique article and a wonderful job Inconnu
Keep up the good work!!
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:04 am
Here’s a great interview with Robert Pape whose book Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism looks at suicide bombing through history. He’s a US conservative who after extensive research refutes the idea that suicide terror is unique to any one group.
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:11 am
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkadi_Monastery#The_Holocaust
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:13 am
And, leaving aside Japanese Kamikaze pilots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonidas_Squadron
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:14 am
“Two can play at this, Mr. Spencer.”
Robert will not adress your argument, he’ll attack you, change the subject, insinuate that you are practicing taqqiya and tu qoque etc.
Mr. Spencer known very well that he’s a lying bigot talking nonsense but he also understands his audience very well. What Mr. Spencer offers is a simple black and white view of the world where the enemy is the eternal Muslim necessarily plotting against everyone else just as his god commands him.
We already know what happens when you dehumanize an entire group like this and so does Spencer. One only has to read his treatment of the Bosnian genocide, his denial that a massacre took place at srebernica based on the “research” of a fellow anti-muslim traveller. I called him on it once when he refered to this research as “fact” and he immediately removed the article and his comment (although I was able to get a screen shot). It was also deleted from other forums but you can find it in front page mag.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/01/24/uk-jihadist-threatens-bosnia-style-bloodbath-on-the-streets-of-britain/
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:45 am
Langsammer, I just love your comment above buddy….totally sums up Spencer…LOL!
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:34 pm
@langsammer
Nice post! How many people in the media who quote Spencer as an “Islam expert” know that he’s a genocide denier?
April 24th, 2010 at 4:47 am
Spencer is a coward — if he had balls he wouldn’t have denied the genocide in Bosnia, he would have lauded it.
April 24th, 2010 at 6:16 am
I just tried to access the web link provided by Langsammer from Saudi, but the Kingdom has decided to block it, hmmm!
April 24th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Okay let me get this straight when a few verses showing the negative side of Islam are quoted it’s “out of context” and “just an interpretation” but when a few verses showing the positive side of Islam are quoted it’s absolute? How interesting; of course the truth is that religious texts are contradictory and easy to bend any which you want, one of the many reasons why religion in general is nothing but a disease.
April 24th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
@George Carty
You’re right. Many genocide “deniers” secretly enjoy that they happened. Holocaust deniers like the fact that Jews were exterminated. Spencer, the radical Muslim hater that he is, likes the fact that Muslims were killed and raped in Bosnia. But they’re too cowardly to admit it. So they play the deny game. It’s a cover.
April 25th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Let us not forget that in WWII the Japanese thought out the “special attack corps” better known as kamikaze, and that even before that a Japanese soldier was expected to walk through a minefield or to throw himself before an enemy pillbox to block the machine gun; that even before the kamikaze, Japanese pilots would dive on their target if wounded or if their plane was damaged (even occurred at Pearl Harbor). Some Muslims those Japanese (at that time there was a Muslim community in Kobe but the Japanese Muslims of that time were less than .01% of the population). Also the Germans had suicide pilots in the last days of WWII (even though only very few actually dove into the bridges over the Oder to prevent the Russians from crossing). Some Muslims too, right? Col. Jimmy Doolittle too allegedly said before the raid on Tokyo that he would not be captured alive, but if he was wounded he would dive into a good target. Some Muslim he, too? The first military pilot to ram an enemy aircraft at the cost of his life was in WWI, a Russian named Nesterov. Would you say he was a Muslim too? The whole argument that suicide attacks are exclusive to Muslims falls flat on its face. But then, if I had been in the war in Bosnia I would not have let the Serbs take me alive to roast me over a small fire. No, I would have wanted to take at least six of them down with me. In a genocidal war, for teh victims of genocide surrender is not an option. It was neither an option for the Jews at Masada. But they didn’t gop ouit and tried to kill the Romans; after all they didn’t have any explosives, only swords, so they took their own lives to avoid captured, torture, humiliation and then execution or slavery. And I think that in such a situation one can count on God’s forgiveness. But I would never go out and blow myself up in a crowd or fly a plane into a building. What good would it do to kill a bunch of people who haven’t doen anything to me personally ? Of course if they are out to kill me slowly and painfully and to humiliate me beforehand then that is something different. Sept.11th or blowing oneself up among a crowd of Israelis however has no justification for me.
April 25th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Cagliostro said
“How interesting; of course the truth is that religious texts are contradictory and easy to bend any which you want, one of the many reasons why religion in general is nothing but a disease.”
Spoken like a true ignorant idiot. If religion is a “disease” then western secularism is a inoperable cancerous tumor.
April 25th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
@ Cagliostro, if you go to the Encyclopedia of War, you will find that only about 6% to 7% of all wars are caused by religion, while most are caused by politics. Also, why didn’t atheist Russia and many communist nations who also said religion in general is a disease that causes war, not live in peace and have soo many problems? South Park made fun of Atheists one time when they showed that even if the whole world population were all atheists, they would still fight over meager differences that deal with idealogy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_God_Go
April 26th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Actually Spencer praised the Bosniak genocide as “opposing Jihad”; because there’s nothing more evil to him than half starved boys and old men who just wanted to live in peace.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
@Langsammer
Spencer’s ‘argument’ about the Bosniak genocide was based on the ‘research’ (actually that’s an insult to real researchers and scholars) of Alexander Dorin (who has the nerve to whine about ‘racism’), you can read a refutation of his lies here.
http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2009/11/alexander-dorin-discredited-genocide.html
April 26th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Messiah
u say tamils are hindu christian and muslim…however that is not the reality on the ground….the tamils being christian and hindu…drove out the muslims that were in the territories they held..and massacared hundereds of muslims while in prayer at 2 mosques..and u dont find any muslims in the ltte ranks..they instaed sided with the government to preserve the unity of the country……and the laws of 1972 laws that discriminated against Tamils have since been over turned
April 26th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
See Cagliostro and Proud Loon are actually fair and unbaised and have intelligent arguments unlike the childish Lawerence.
April 27th, 2010 at 2:02 am
Unimpressed, insults are not arguments, try again. Robaby, apart from the fact that religion is inherently political, it has given the world nothing but misery, brutal theocratic tyranny and prejudice, it’s an obstacle to human advancement. The problem with communism was that it rejected key human rights; a trait shared by many religions and theocracies.
April 30th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Cagliostro
its not relihion that prevents human rights..its humans that prevent human rights it is our nature…anything the human being does is political….in the end we only worry about ourselves…so stop commenting on something you dont understand.
have u read all the religious books and fallowed their other readings…if not then u have no say.
April 30th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
May 20th has been declared to be draw Muhammad day, and this event has been set up on Facebook. So in response Sami Zaatari has created a counter Facebook group and campaign ‘Honour The Prophet Muhammad’, and this will also lead to May 20th. So please join the Facebook group, and do your part, on May 20th we shall be releasing a high quality production video that shall compile some of the greatest examples of the prophet Muhammad. The group can be found on the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122422947769479&ref=ts
Spread the group around and get as many people to join.
May 1st, 2010 at 12:36 am
@Cagliostro
Have you considered reading this counter-argument to the anti-theists?
May 11th, 2010 at 4:23 am
Only Harold knows for sure what really went down.He was a fine young man,doing the best that he could ,and is missed dearly.I wished he had stayed at Goodyear.