Portrait of a man who massacred children

The Times (UK) ^ | 8/21/03 | Robert Tait

[saquin]

Raed Abdel Misk, with his daughter, Samir and son Mo'umen. The bomb that he carried on to a bus yesterday killed 20, including 5 children.

THERE is no trace of evil in the beaming face of the proud father balancing his two young children in his arms. Yet Raed Abdel Misk, a religious scholar, was identified yesterday as the suicide bomber who took the lives of Jewish infants barely old enough to walk.

The murder of 20 people, including five children — the youngest 11 months old — and the wounding of 120 others, 40 of them children, is being dubbed the Massacre of the Children. However, the bomber’s relatives spoke of a family man respected in his community as an imam and scholar.

Misk’s relatives, gathered in a hall in Hebron yesterday to mourn and celebrate his passing as a Palestinian shaheed (martyr), said that he would have been unconcerned about killing Israeli children. His son, Moumen, (whose name means “Believer” in Arabic) and his daughter, Samir, are aged four and 18 months respectively. His wife, Arij, is five months pregnant with their third child.

Yet on Tuesday night Misk, 29, boarded the No 2 bus in Jerusalem, crowded with Ultra Orthodox Jewish worshippers and their children returning from prayers at the Wailing Wall. He was armed with a 5kg (11lb) bomb packed with nails and shrapnel.

“When he got on the bus and saw all the children, he would think of his own children,” Ayad Misk, 32, a cousin, said. “But he would think, OK, today they are children but in 15 or 20 years they are going to be Israeli soldiers and they could be coming here to Hebron and killing his own son or daughter or other members of his family.”

In fact, ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempt from serving in the Israeli Army. Beit Y’Israel, the neighbourhood where the explosion occurred, is home to many members of the Neturei Karta, a sect that does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and supports Palestinian statehood. Members of the sect were seen among the crowds observing the rescue effort after the bombing.

The classic profile of a suicide bomber is an unmarried male in his late teens or early 20s. Misk was a lecturer on Islamic law at Hebron’s Sharia College and studying to become a Muslim magistrate — qualifying him to sit at Islamic courts — at al-Najah University in Nablus. The families of some Palestinian suicide bombers have complained that Muslim clerics should be prepared to sacrifice themselves rather than encourage other people’s sons to do so.

As a member of Hamas, the Palestinian extremist group, Misk was bent on avenging the deaths of two militants from Hebron and two others in Nablus at the hands of the Israeli Army in the past two months.

Relatives said that Misk would have regarded Tuesday’s actions as “an eye for an eye” He was blown to pieces before he could see the result of his actions.

Rescue crews described giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to babies and having to calm infants as they took them to hospital.

Ariel Sharon, Israel’s Prime Minister, told his Cabinet colleagues that the perpetrators of the bombing were animals.

The killings prompted Israel to prepare retaliatory raids against the Palestinians, threatening to plunge the Middle East into a new cycle of violence. Last night 15 Israeli tanks were reported to be heading for Ramallah, where Yassir Arafat has his base.

Yesterday, Misk’s relatives said that he would have had no regrets. They said that he had been driven to martyrdom by resentment of the Israeli occupation and a deep knowledge of the Koran.

“When he was travelling to Nablus and back he saw the suffering of the people caused by the Israeli roadblocks and the actions of the soldiers,” his cousin said. “What he did on Tuesday he really believed in because he knew what it meant to be a martyr. He never believed in the hudna (Palestinian ceasefire) because he could see the Israelis were destroying homes every day.”

Hours after Misk exploded his device, Israeli soldiers went into Hebron and arrested 17 people, including his two brothers. Yesterday, possessions were being moved out of the family home in expectation of the Israeli Army demolishing it, as is customary with the houses of suicide bombers.

[Alouette]

LET'S ROLL

[Lurker]

Having personally 'been there and done that', I hope the Israelis shove every one of those 'palestinians' back into Jordan, Syria, and Egypt at bayonet point, raze their villages to the dirt, and sow the ground with salt.

Any 'palestinian' attempting to cross the border would then be shot without question.

A bunch of murdering bastards worshiping an evil god don't deserve being treated like humans.

I'd write more but I'd get banned.

May G*d be with your son. Wish him good hunting for me.

Regards,

L

[The KG9 Kid]

"... Worse. They should be taken and raised as Jews."

Best straight answer in this thread.