DYING FOR GOD 243to be launched in a market in Haifa. He said that when his brother gave
him the bomb, his brother “was giving me a ticket to heaven. I took his
hand and kissed it because he wanted to give me something precious....
Because he loves me he wants me to become a martyr....Themost
exalted thing in our religion.”
This suicide bomber sees himself as someone already dead. There is
no abandonment of this course, once it is set upon, without a loss of self-
respect. The bomber sees nothing actually suicidal about the act, because
the Koran prohibits suicide. This is a nice piece of logic and little appeals
to the average Westerner. The bomber perceives his pending death as
merely a momentary inconvenience in his propulsion into heaven. Any
pain that he might suffer is merely a temporary annoyance on the road to
immortality. Once in paradise he will live forever with seventy-two virgins
and a river of honey. In addition, he is assured that he wins entry into
paradise for seventy of his relatives.
The suicide bomber’s attitude is exactly the same as that young man
standing next to Muhammad during the battle of Badr (A.D. 624), who
when hearing Muhammad’s exclamation that death in battle granted im-
mediate entry into heaven, charged into the midst of his enemies, heedless
of his personal danger. So too do these suicide bombers charge into the
midst of their enemies. In the same sense, the modern Muslim fanatic sees
himself as a holy warrior, on a jihad to defend or promote Islam with
extreme action. These men see the jihad as a pillar of Islam, an obligation
that they must undertake.
Some would suggest that the profile of suicide bombers would show
that the bombers are the young and unattached males who are religiously
devout, extremely poor, dismally educated, and not particularly intelligent.
Overall, it is true that such individuals may be more likely recruited into
the ranks of suicide bombers, but they are not alone. A surprising number
of female suicide bombers have been seen. These have surfaced in the
attacks against Israel and in the Chechnyan attack of June 8, 2000, where
two women drove a truckload of explosives into a Russian headquarters.
There are also university-educated young men and married men with
young families. The members of this unusual group defy Western
understanding.
The only single, clearly identifiable thread is a devout attachment to
Islam and the firm belief in the paradise to follow their death.
The Middle East has been the focus of considerable conflict in the past
fifty years, and the term “jihad” has frequently been heard on the tongues
of political and religious leaders directed at Israel, the United States, Brit-
ain, and even other Muslim states. Indeed,jihadhas been institutionalized