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My Politics Paper. Any Suggestions?

 
 
Rella
 
Reply Mon 22 Dec, 2003 03:11 am
"When I wander into Jerusalem, I will become a suicide bomber..." sings a little boy on The Children's Club, a Palestinian version of Sesame Street.
Three-year-olds in the Middle East.What are they being taught? The alphabet maybe, or perhaps how to share?
In an episode of Muslim Woman Magazine, hostess Doaa ?'Amer interviews Basmallah, a three-year-old Muslim girl. In her interview, the precocious toddler reveals her hatred for the Jews, referring to them as pigs and apes, and reciting stories from the Qu'ran. The camera pans to ?'Amer. "Basmallah, Allah be praised" she says, "The next generation of children must be true Muslims. We must educate them now while they are still children so that they will be true Muslims."
Why are children as young as three years old being taught to hate?
If a repressed group of people faces overwhelming force in the achievement of its political, social, or economic goals, then the leadership may promote martyrdom through the use of terrorism to achieve its ends.
Muhammad Atta. He was thirty-three when he headed up the twin towers tragedy. Atta grew up in Abdeen, a neighborhood in Cairo, in a five-bedroom apartment. Abdeen is said to be "the heart of Egypt"---there is no one economic class. Internet Cafes, markets, auto-mechanics, and American film ads inhabit the neighborhood along with a strong love/hate attitude toward America. They admire the American Dream, but feel very betrayed by the actions of the U.S. government. The president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, has attempted to keep the citizens deluded about the futility of their future via western media. While an American movie may give them some sort of hope, most Egyptians will always have the notion in the back of their minds that their lives will never be anything like that.
Muhammad Atta graduated from Cairo University with a degree in architecture, and moved to Germany to continue his education. There his interest in Islam deepened when he joined an Islamic prayer group in 1999. The following year, he enrolled at Huffman Aviation International in Florida, where he learned to pilot a plane. Atta was said to be polite and reserved.
Hanandi Jaradat was twenty-nine when she bombed a restaurant in Haifa, killing herself and nineteen others. Jaradat grew up in Jenin, a city in West Bank, with a very religious family. She was to be qualified as a lawyer the week of her death. On June 12, 2003, Israeli troops shot and killed her cousin and her brother. After their death, she went from fasting two times a week to every day of the week, and reading the Qu'ran daily. Her sister, Fayda, describes Hanandi as fearless and strong in spirit, but at the same time she was "sociable, lovable, and notable for her altruism."
Muhammad Rashid Daoud al'Owhali grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Saudi Arabia. Since he was a teenager, al'Owhali has been interested in Orthodox Islam, taking in books such as The Love and Hour of the Martyrs, The Qu'ran, and books on America and the obligation of all Muslims to abate attempts to disenfranchise the nations of Islam. After Operation Desert Storm, the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia deeply upset him. When he was nineteen, al'Owhali befriended Osama Bin Laden and joined the Al Queda network. At twenty-one, he killed two-hundred-and-thirteen people when he bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. He was supposed to die that day as a martyr. Now he is serving life in a U.S. prison.
So how do these profiles tie in to the incentives to martyrdom? Martyrs are largely celebrated by Arabs, especially Islamic Fundamentalists. Their families will receive approximately $5,000 to $25,000. The martyrs are guaranteed eternity in Paradise, seventy-two virgin brides, permission to see the face of Allah, and seventy spots in Heaven for their friends and families. And hey, maybe they'll even make it into the Martyr of the Month calendar. None of the families of these three Muslims were in desperate need of the money. None of these three were struggling to live. So why did they submit to martyrdom? Some reasons are glaringly obvious. Jaradat wanted to avenge her brother's death. Al'Owhali was enraged by U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia. But what are the underlying factors that sparked these feelings? And what of Atta, the quiet, courteous leader of the 9-11 attacks? The answer lies in the figureheads who call on Muslims during televised sermons to arm themselves or their children with weapons to pursue the jihad against the Jews. It is in the summer camps that train eight to twelve year old kids to become suicide bombers. It is in The Children's Corner, glorifying martyrdom to toddlers.
From an extremely young age, Muslim children are taught that martyrdom is noble, beneficial, and definitely the best thing they could ever do with their lives. "We are all potential martyrs, the whole Palestinian people." says Yassir Arafat, president of Palestine. Perhaps they feel they owe it to their leaders. Hamas influenced the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with Islamic propaganda and social work. Twenty years after the Intifada, the Hamas organization has built a strong political, social, educational and religious infrastructure. Apparently it has helped---almost seventy percent of martyrs are from the Gaza Strip.
If martyrdom wasn't promoted by Palestinian society and leadership, there would be a significant slump in terrorist attacks. Some martyrs may have been seeking love and attention more than anything; eighty-three percent are single. The prospect of glorification on earth and seventy-two virgins in heaven is a huge part of what lures them.
It doesn't seem to be the case that those who blow themselves up have a low sense of self worth. Almost half have an academic education, and an additional twenty-nine percent have at least finished high school. Life on earth, it seems, means little to the aspiring martyr. They believe their religion will surpass the seventy years they've been given, and they'd relinquish forty or fifty years for a secure ticket to Paradise.
After Jaradat's death, her family received many congratulations. "Why should we cry?" said her fifteen-year-old brother, Thaher, "It is like her wedding today, the happiest day for her."
The reason al'Owhali didn't die in his own attack? He ran. At the last moment, he reasoned that something having to do with the position of the bomb would be suicide, not martyrdom, and therefore a sin. A cop-out? Probably. They say that most people who jump off a bridge, or out a window, or off a tall building who lived to tell about it said that on their way down, they regretted it. Perhaps ecstasy is not every martyr's last sensation. Some may have doubts that don't arise until the very last second. But then, maybe al'Owhali really did notice this logic last-minute.
When it comes down to it, there's not much that can be done to stop terrorism unless the entire society of Palestine is rearranged. The combination of the martyr's spite, religious fervor, and the influential propaganda of Palestine make it virtually impossible to change the mind of an aspiring martyr.
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Shajahan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Dec, 2003 12:10 am
You have explained the act and not the cause.

The west could not control Israel and brokered a peace agreement acceptable to all parties.

On the other hand, the west think that getting support from certain leaders in Islamic countries is all that enough to appease the muslims all over the land. These muslim leaders are all selfish men who at any cost wanted to keep their land, money and power intact by using the outside help. They do nothing for the people.

The west should turn their attention to the feelings of the common men on the streets of the islamic world and respect their feeling - not the political leaders.

The west always support the wrong men for their own convenience and later found them a nuisance and starts fighting them.

Say for example - Taliban and bin Laden - both got support from the west when they were fighting the communist Russia. At that time, it suited the west to finance, arm and support the same group against which they went later with a murderous vengeance.

Another - the US supported Saddam and armed him while he was waging a war against Khomeini of Iran. Because US feared the wave of Islamic Preachings by khomeini would engulf the whole Arab world and it would endanger their oil interest in Gulf. What they forgot was that Khomeini was a shiaite leader and the whole mass of Arab world would have rejected him enmasse. But in their panic the west and the communist Russia both armed Saddam and his regime. The communist worry were that the Islamic wave generated by Khomeini would unrest the Muslim provinces in the erstwhile soviet country. But now what happened? The US was on the hunt for the dictator.....!!!

The oil wealth in the Gulf belongs to the people of Arabian peninsula. But the west wanted to rob the wealth of the people using some disgruntled leaders. This is where people getting upset and encourages any kind of attack on the symbols of the west whether right or wrong....

Its only they need an outlet for their anger......


And any community, there will always be someone available to encash on this.......

The gulf is no different......
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Rella
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Dec, 2003 07:51 am
Thank you for your suggestions and information. Smile
However, I think I should say that I'm trying to look at each of these people individually and find specific reasons in their life which drove them to kill themselves and others.
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