Posted on 12/04/2001 7:26:16 PM PST by Proud Canadian
In the Palestinian Authority's new Grade 6 textbook designed to teach history, tolerance and community values, there is a chapter called "The Honourable Martyrs." Here is part of an inspirational poem from it (the translation is from the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute):
I lay my soul in my palm and
fling it to the depths of dissolution.
Either a life that will bring my comrades
joy
or a death that will cause my enemies
anguish.
The noble soul has two goals, death and
desire for it.
In the new geography textbook, there is a map of the Palestinian lands that encompass the entire territory known elsewhere in the world as Israel. Israel is not mentioned on the map; officially, it doesn't exist.
It's impossible to know just how many boys and young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have found the quick path to paradise by turning themselves into human bombs.
It's not that hard to do. All you need is a few dollars worth of nails and screws, a detonator and a bus ticket to the nearest Israeli shopping mall. Or you can just get a gun, open fire on some civilians, and keep shooting until you're dead.
"Our biggest problem is the hordes of young men who beat on our doors," bragged a Hamas leader recently to New Yorker reporter Nasra Hassan. "Those whom we turn away return again and again, pestering us, pleading to be accepted."
Toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan turned out to be a piece of cake. Smoking out Osama bin Laden from his hole will be a snap compared to sucking out the poison that infects the Middle East.
Last summer, long before Sept. 11, a survey by the Palestinian Centre for Public Opinion found that 76 per cent of Palestinian respondents said they supported suicide attacks against unarmed Israeli civilians. The president of the PCPO attributed this overwhelming support to the second intifada,which began in September of 2000.
At one time, the ethics of suicide bombing were a matter of considerable dispute among clerics and scholars in the Arab world. "This is not a part of jihad,and I fear that it is merely killing oneself," said a leading Saudi mufti. Those voices have been drowned out. Suicide bombing has been redefined as martyrdom committed in an act of self-defence.
Is blowing up Israeli children all right, too? Opinion is divided on that one. But preaching violence to Palestinian children is definitely okay.
"When the Muslims are attacked in their homes and their land is robbed, the jihad for Allah turns into an individual duty," declared one group of Egyptian scholars. "When jihad becomes an individual duty, all Muslims must join in, and children must go to battle, even without asking permission from their parents."
What are suicide bombers like?
According to The New Yorker's Nasra Hassan, they're pretty much like the terrorists who attacked the United States. They aren't the desperate rabble of the refugee camps. They're educated young men who are often middle class, with paying jobs.
She spoke with some who had been recruited, or had tried but failed to execute a mission, or had survived one. She found that they were all polite and serious, and quite well-informed about politics. "In their communities, they were considered to be model youths," she wrote.
How can these young men justify killing children? "The Israelis humiliate us. They occupy our land and deny our history," they told her. "The Israelis kill our children and our women. This is war, and innocent people get hurt."
As the Israelis bury the bloody scraps of the 25 civilians who were blown up on the weekend, the families of the suicide bombers will rejoice. They will hold wedding rites, to celebrate the martyrs' ascension to Heaven. The dead men's mothers will be pressed to ululate with joy, not weep with grief. Their pictures will appear on next year's calendar of martyrs, and they will become instant heroes to the children whose counterparts they blew up a few miles away.
"The Muslim embraces death," said the mufti of Jerusalem several years ago. "Look at the society of the Israelis. It is a selfish society that loves life. These are not people who are eager to die for their country and their God. The Jews will leave this land rather than die, but the Muslim is happy to die."
Back in the classroom, the Grade 6 students are studying the lessons that have been devised to educate them in good citizenship, democracy and nationhood.
"Islam commands every Muslim to defend [his land], whenever even an inch of his land is stolen," they read. They are treated to stirring stories of children who became martyrs in the resistance against Israeli occupation or heroes in the fight against the enemies of the Prophet Mohammed. One Grade 6 study question asks: "What role can I play in support of the national resistance movement against the occupier and the imperialist?"
One shudders at the answer.
Come visit us at Freepathon Holidays are Here Again: Let's Really Light Our Tree This Year - Thread 5
and be a part of something that is larger than all of us.
Alone, we are a voice crying in the wilderness. Together we are a force for positive action!
Don't be left out!
Be one who can someday say..................... "I was there when..................."
And thank you to everyone who's already become a part!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.