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To ‘live’ or not to ‘live’ By Bilal Mohammed
“When an 18-years-old Palestinian girl is induced to blow herself up and the process kills a 17-years-old Israeli girl, the future itself is dying.” These were the words of George w. Bush, on Ayat Akhras’ March 29,2002 suicide assault at a Jerusalem supermarket. Well, it is right, the future is dying, especially when these assaults initiate others around the world to revolt against others. For instance, there wasn’t record of any female suicide bomber until Wafa Idris, 28, started the new trend: female suicide bombing. That young Palestinian woman stunned the world when she turned herself in to a human bomb and exploded in Jerusalem, killing one Israeli and wounding 150 others. In the weeks after, more women joined the queue of suicide bombers, like Darin Abuyeshaw, 21,Ayat Akhras, 18, and many others, as the world stood alarmed and bewildered. As Israeli security service disclosed, the number of suicide bombers quadrupled in 8 years, 1994-2002. For some, the challenge today is how not to be a suicide bomber. But now it is not my intention to discuss the statistics, which is the routine headlines of the mass-media; rather, it is the misconception or misunderstanding of the reason for suicide bombing at international and domestic level, which makes the situation get worse. Now, the practice has gone from extreme to mainstream. Once, after an exhaustive and rainy day, I met friends at home. I can call it an impromptu panel that sprung out from ETV’s foreign news, more particularly from the current issue, which was as hot as the potatoes we had enjoyed. One friend asked me if my maid is a terrorist. I surprisingly wanted to know why as he was looking a little bit serious. He said that the potato burnt his mouth. And hence his question. But I didn’t hesitate to ask him why again. He replied that she terrified him with vegetable bomb. He claimed that whether it is deliberate or not, it is terrorism. Then I asked him “who is a terrorist?” “A person who terrifies,” he answers my question trying to fill his mouth with more hot potatoes. As in other situations, the words ‘terrorism’ and ‘suicide bombing’ were used interchangeably. Not only the words but also the concepts are mis-understood. Mostly, this is because of the dominant giant medias- the loudspeakers of the powerful- or personal prejudice or even traditional and religious orientations. To step up from the dictionary meaning, a terrorist is a person who terrifies as fundamentalist is a person who relates everything with the fundamental knowledge. So we can simply associate terrorism with those who terrify others and not as the world dominant actors tried to divert our attention and inculcate in our mind, by addressing it to a particular group. Still, it is an elusive concept and some how vague. Suicide bombing is a little bit different. It is a desperate measure, a measure taken when no other alternative is left. Most scholars and psychologists attached it with the orders of the holly Qur’an, stating that the suicide bombers commits the act because they are dreaming a pleasant heavenly life. But the Qur’an, not emphasizing only in the spiritual life, orders human beings to strive for both earthly and heavenly lives. In fact, there is ‘Jihad’ with the concept of protecting Islam and Muslims. Killing people is not the way to heaven; it is rather protecting the religion and the believers. Thus, one is not supposed to hurt or kill others if other alternatives are there to take. Some others relate it with the ideological and military missions as of the Japanese suicide brigade ‘Camikezi’ and the Mossad’s killing and if necessary dying squad ‘Kidon’. And others relate it with religious practice as of the Hindus’ earlier way of expression of belief- suicide in a ‘self burning chapel’ and the Japanese traditional way of manifestation of the truth, ‘Hara-kiri’. But neither the traditional and the religious nor the ideological and the military missions resemble the driving power for suicide bombing. Even the promised word in the Qur’an serves only as a ground for defensive reaction and hope to be compensated in ‘later worlds’, not as an initial reason to make an offence. Did you ever think of what your reaction would be, if you see your family members killed and raped, your house and neighborhood turned in to a battle field and dust, when you have no power to protect yourself and others. You loose your livelihood and become frustrated. What do you think you will do? It is like a kind of lizard, which has a deadly poison, but never uses it unless it is left with no other alternative to protect itself. This is because, naturally, the lizard will die as soon as it spits out its poison. However, dying to kill is not a noble calling at all. For some, the same could hold true even for ‘dying to save.’ To understand why Palestinian men and women are blowing themselves up at Israeli restaurants and buses is to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict- the proxy war fueled by those dominant interest groups. The situation even threatens the whole Middle East and the world, and US’s ignorance of the Middle East peace process endangers its position. That was when President Bush said, “the storms of violence cannot go on; enough is enough.” Everybody wishes it to end just by uttering the word ‘enough’. But how can it be practical without understanding and clarifying the crux of the matter. The suicide bombers said ‘enough’ when their families are killed, they will continue to say ‘enough,’ before they blow themselves up, and it will not end until the proxy war ends. All said, the choice for them is to live or not to live.
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