Home
Previous letters
Subscribe
Useful links
About me
Contact me
|
WORLD CITIZEN LETTER: 572
View full list of previous letters
Receive future letters by email
WCL 572 Nov 2007
Muslim suicides
The long tradition of muslim suicides extends at least to the time of the Syrian Assassins, who were primed with hashish before being despatched to murder their chosen victim by self- destruction. And the West has confronted suicide tactics more recently, notably the Japanese kamikaze pilots of the Second World War. Diving to pierce the armoured decks of American aircraft carriers although damaging, did not postpone the day of Japanese defeat and surrender.
But muslim suicide bombers are bolstered by arguments about the iniquities of the West. The attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan are seen as part of a vast campaign against Islam and the American support, above all, for Israeli control of Palestine is seen as a key part of that campaign. The idea that the West, in general, has any such plan, is moonshine. If there is any concerted plan for international action by the 'West' it is to seek profit. The recent fawning by the British government upon the worst example of Islamic rule - the Saudi kingdom - is clear evidence of that.
An even stronger rebuttal of the puny arguments employed to defend muslim suicide bombers comes from a glance at recent history. The war between Iraq and Iran cost a million casualties. Launched by one muslim state against another, it achieved nothing except the slaughter of muslims. And the greatest number of deaths and injuries extorted by suicide bombers from the suffereing of the Iraqis since the allied invasion has been among innocent Iraqi civilians. The occupying forces have not been the chief sufferers.
Nor, in the scattered and minor attacks on the West, notably the destruction of the twin New York towers, was there any exemption for muslims. They were included in large numbers among the victims.
Similarly in London and Madrid, suicide bombers take a toll on muslim innocents as well as non-believers. The idea that suicide bombing is an attack on the Western adversaries of Islam is far-fetched nonsense and only upheld by short-sighted and twisted conspiracy theorists powered by intense and bitter emotion.
It needs to be fully recognized and acknowledged, that the Western states, especially the United States, in the desire for oil and strategic military advantage, have treated the Middle East as playground for their political exercises. Taking advantage of the rivalry and jealousies of the muslim rulers and peoples, they have pursued policies designed solely to benefit oil companies, corrupt rulers and puppet regimes. Until serious changes of policy are made, with honesty and openness, the appeal of the anti-western suicide bombers and other antagonists, will not diminish. The "war on terror", that ludicrous notion masquerading as a policy, will continue to be used as a talisman by the American intellectual pygmies and their gullible allies.
Hatred canalized may lead to directed destruction: it does not produce benefits for those on whose behalf it is supposedly used. Muslim suicide tactics are self-defeating and in the long run will work against Islam, apart from being anathema to the mass of muslims, for whom religion is a way of life, not of death. But as long as western politicians and publicists persist in treating the phenomena of suicide bombing as a threat and not as something to be examined and countered by better argument and removal of the justifiable grievances of muslims, they and others will continue to suffer from the ravages of the bombers.
John Roberts
Comment on this letter
View full list of previous letters
Receive future letters by email
Comments on this letter
|
|