How Islamic teachings encourage Suicide Bombings

RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS: ISLAMIST IDEOLOGY

by David Bukay


Suicide terrorism has been the scourge of the last quarter century. A suicide bomb attack on the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut compelled Ronald Reagan in 1983 to withdraw peacekeepers from Beirut. Palestinian leaders deploy suicide bombers to force Israeli concessions, and Iraqi insurgents use suicide bombings to derail the new political order. Al-Qaeda suicide bombers attacked the U.S.S. Cole in Aden in 2000 and, on September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center and Pentagon. While some scholars argue there is no religious component to suicide bombing—they are wrong. All Muslim suicide bombers justify their actions with their religion and, more specifically, with the concept of jihad.



While Western scholars of late argue that jihad refers primarily to internal struggle, Islamic writings feature jihad as physical warfare. Historian Bernard Lewis finds that "the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists and traditionalists ... understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense."  Jihad is central to the Muslim perception of the world, dividing it into dar al-Islam (abode of Islam) and dar al-harb (abode of war) which is destined to come under Islamic rule. Jihad both purifies the dar al-Islam and is the tool to shrink and eradicate the dar al-harb. As a doctrine, the aim of jihad is clear: to establish God's rule on earth by compelling non-Muslims to embrace Islam, or to force them to accept second class status if not eradicate them altogether.

 

All four schools of Sunni Islam as well as mainstream Shi'ism consider idolatry, apostasy, and hypocrisy to be capital offenses. In each case, Jihad is a means to counter such threats and assert the predominance of Islam.  This is directly commanded in the Qur’an in Surah’s 8:39, 9:5, & 9:123; it is also reinforced in the Hadith writings.  Terrorist groups like Hamas have fully embraced these teachings to justify and glorify suicide bombings.  Teachings such as those in Bukhari and Muslim that state that killing Jews will hasten the coming of the Day of Judgement. 

 

Too many Western leaders and scholars attest that a history of exploitation by Western powers, Israel's existence, government oppression, poverty, lack of education, and alienation as reasons why desperate individuals decide to blow themselves up to murder others. But attention to suicide bombers' own justifications suggest that, for them, Islam and its call for jihad is the primary motivation.



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