Dying in their lives, murdering in their deaths

The suicide terrorism of the Palestinians and the al-Qaeda organization can be found parallels in modern Islam, for example the Iranian "children of the keys" who were sent to explode in the Iraqi minefields, but not in early Islam. In the non-Muslim world, two cases of suicide use in war or terrorism are known: the kamikaze pilots

Amnon Barzilai

Illustration: Liron Bar Akiva

The Habarakim's Oath: "At midnight, the Habarak (a kind of highway robber) sneaks up
Principles from the Islamic tradition in the Caucasus, XNUMX) to the mosque and swore. 'I swear
In the name of the holy place where I am now and which I respect, to be
From today onwards assigned. I want to shed human blood and spare no one.
I will chase people. I swear to rob them of everything they hold dear,
for their conscience and honor. I will stab a baby with a dagger on his mother's chest, I will turn you on
The last mystery of the beggar, and wherever there was joy until now, I will bring
trouble and worry. If I do not follow this oath, whether love or mercy will fail
My heart, God willing, and I will never see my father's grave again, God willing
And the water will no longer quench my thirst and the food will never satisfy you
hungry May my corpse be thrown on the side of the road and a dirty dog ​​will do
She took care of his needs." (From the book "The Love of Ali and Nino", which was published
For the first time in 1937, written by Korban Said, a Jewish writer
from Azerbaijan who converted to Islam).

Orientalist and historian Prof. Emmanuel Sivan from the Hebrew University
In recent years, he has been summoned to Jerusalem for consultations with political figures
To consider measures against the Palestinian suicide bombers. From time to time it comes up in discussions
These are the question whether the news about the burial of suicides wrapped in pigskin
It thwarted, according to their perception, their plans to ascend as martyrs to heaven and motherhood
It will deter potential suicides.

"This is complete nonsense", replied Sivan. According to him, the English government
tried such an exercise during the Mahdi rebellion in Sudan against British rule in the years
The 70's of the 19th century was when the phenomenon of suicides began for the first time
Muslims. There it worked, but it was tied to beliefs and fears that were not
still exist today. In fact, in the Muslim rebellion that broke out in Malaya (today
Malaysia) in the 50s against the British, the phenomenon of suicides returned.
The English tried the pigskin patent again. It didn't work there.
The suicides continued.

Also in the war between Iraq and Iran, in the 80s, suicide bombers were used.
The Ayatollahs' rule recruited children for the Revolutionary Guards and sent them to the fields
Mines planted by the Iraqis, to dismantle them. chains were tied to their necks,
on which hung a key to the gates of heaven. Thousands of children were killed on the way
This is cruel. They were called "the children of the keys". "It was a mass phenomenon of
Brainwashing, a kamikaze for the poor," says Sivan, "but it had an effect
impressive. It is a fact that this act of sacrifice scared the Iraqis." Even in years
In the 90s in Algeria, the phenomenon of the martyr developed. She grew up on background
The attempt to stop the Islamic movement from coming to power. in war
That one, which lasted about nine years, killed about 100 thousand people.

There are, obviously, other examples of using suicide bombers by me
Muslims in recent decades. The most famous of them is a chain
The suicide attacks carried out by the al-Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden
in the United States on September 11, 2001

exploded on board

There are two notable cases where suicide bombers were used in combat or
In terrorism that is not within an Islamic religious framework. The better known case is that of
The kamikaze of the end of World War II: Japanese pilots in flight
Suicides hit their planes full of explosives with warships
American women and exploded on board. About 2,000 kamikaze sorties were carried out,
which caused the destruction of about 35 ships.
Head of the Department of East Asian Studies at Tel Aviv University, Prof. Yaakov
Raz says that the use of the kamikaze was an act of desperation. The Japanese activated
This weapon when they actually lost control of the Pacific Ocean and the defeat
It was only a matter of time. According to him, the kamikaze are a modern phenomenon.
The meaning of the term: "Spirit of God" - oil of the typhoon winds that destroyed the
Mongolian fleets, which tried to invade Japan in the 13th century. Raz says that "no
It is clear if there is a direct relationship between the samurai, a phenomenon that ended in the 19th century
and the kamikaze. The kamikaze took place at a time when madness reigned in Japan
absolute. But there was no religious aspect to this phenomenon. It was brainwashing
political".

In any case, by chance or not, the kamikaze phenomenon took place in the company
Japanese, who knew the phenomenon of "harakiri" - suicide by cutting
The stomach (Hera: "stomach" in Japanese). This type of suicide was typical
for the samurai and intended to end life in a dignified manner, following an omission
Great or their shame was responsible for the samurai.

Another notable use of suicide bombers was made in the context of the rebels' struggle
Tamils ​​against the central government in Sri Lanka. in the last 15 years
This struggle includes terrorist attacks and suicide attacks directed against senior officials
in power This is a struggle with religious, national and linguistic aspects.
The Tamils, who are Hindu like the vast majority in neighboring India, constitute
a minority in Sri Lanka; The majority of the country's population are Sinhalese, my husband
Buddhist faith. The Tamils ​​did not hesitate in the framework of their struggle even to be harmed
for the purposes of the Indian government, which supports the Sinhalese regime. She was a suicide
A Tamil woman who blew herself up in 1991 and killed the Prime Minister of India, Rajiv
Gandhi.

That's why the monument named after Dov Groner, for example, has the words of a founder engraved on it
HaTzel, David Raziel: "Those who are going to die make you a homeland." Indeed
It is possible to find some common denominator between the martyrs and members of other religions,
who showed a willingness or even a desire to sacrifice their lives for different goals?

Prof. Sivan believes that there is indeed a common denominator: "These are in almost all cases
People who are kind of 'walking dead'." This diagnosis was drowned by Sivan in the spirit
The perception of psychologists in Algeria, who diagnosed terrorist perpetrators
Those who commit suicide in their country as "dead on probation".

"They live in despair and act out of existential despair," Sivan continues, "Dev
Gruner was a classic type of walking dead. For him the world of civilization
Was not exist. He was a holocaust survivor and received life expectancy. Gruner
Belonged to a group of Lehi Vatzel men whom the British were about to execute
(most of them were not executed in the end), and who at the moment of truth refused
ask for pardon Were they depressed people? No. But a group
Most of them, like Gruner, were young people who had just been saved from the Holocaust
And they had life to spare. They came with a strong desire for revenge. But together with
That is, they felt as if they were living by chance. Hence, their willingness to risk the
Their lives for a cause that was perceived by them as noble was extremely high.

"As a rule, these are people who, even if they are not personally suicidal, they are
filled with a sense of doom. In the vast majority of cases it can be seen that
These are persecuted people, from the margins. They live on borrowed time, at a discount
that their lives will be short anyway. Therefore, they are willing to take risks and even
suicidal decisions. This principle applies, of course, to the right ones
to sacrifice their lives in all religions and in all eras without exception."

Lord of the Martyrs

What did the Prophet Muhammad say about martyrs being Muslims today
Young people, who commit suicide while murdering innocent women, children and men?
Would he be shocked to the depths of his soul and order the killing to stop immediately or,
Like the contemporary Muslim spiritual leadership, he would have encouraged the continuation
The bloodbath?

Researchers specializing in ancient cultures and religions will look for historical precedent
to the murders of the suicide bombers who leave the territories of the Palestinian Authority. they are not
find nothing similar in early Islam. "I do not find in the history of
Islam is a precedent for these actions," says Prof. Eitan Kohlberg from the department
for Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University, "However, I hesitate to guess
What the Prophet Muhammad would say. It is impossible to rule out the possibility that he would approve
Acts of cruelty. The Muslims committed acts of cruelty against the Jews. they slaughtered
With the permission of the Prophet Muhammad, all the members of the Jewish tribe of Qurayzah in the city of Medina
In the Arabian Peninsula in 627, Muhammad justified the act and claimed that all my sons
The tribe made an alliance with the Prophet's enemies. Therefore the whole tribe must. However, it is clear
that there is a difference between this event and the actions we are witnessing today."

Prof. Kohlberg is considered one of the world's leading orientalists in the study of the phenomenon
The martyr in the Muslim religion. He wrote the entry "Shahid" in the edition
The new and updated Encyclopedia of Islam.

In the years 625-623 AD, Muhammad was revealed. It happened during a battle
Uhud in the Arabian Peninsula. The souls of the warriors killed in this battle rose
Heaven, so says one of the traditions, and they discovered what pleasures were in store for them.
They wanted to tell the warriors on earth about this so that they would not fear the battle.
In another tradition it is said that 72 virgins will be waiting for the martyr in heaven. so
For the first time, Muslims became aware of the phenomenon of martyrdom: martyrdom.

In the Koran, the word "Shaheed" (plural "Shuhda'a") appears in the meaning of "witness".
It is written there (Qur'an, 3 Al Imran, 140): "...so that God may know who they are
the believers and he will take from among you the Shuhadaa" - that is, those who died a martyr's death.
Kohlberg, in his article "Martyrdom and self-sacrifice in classical Islam",
Points out that Muslim scholars believed that the word "martyr" symbolizes the fact
that God and his angels are witnesses that that person deserves a place in heaven or,
In another interpretation, God would testify that his intentions were good and pure.

The Lord of the Martyrs ("Sid al-Shuhda'a") is Hamza, the Prophet's uncle
Muhammad. According to one tradition, Hamza was killed on the battlefield. Muhammad is easy to leave
the body of his uncle in the field, without bringing it for burial, thereby ensuring that on the day of judgment
He will be brought back to life from the bellies of the birds and beasts of prey. eventually avoided
Doing so so as not to hurt the feelings of Hamza's relatives
And also because he feared that such an action would serve as a precedent.

The phenomenon of the martyr is related to the holy war ("Jihad"), which refers to order
the world as seen by the Muslim religion. Islam, already in its beginnings,
He divided the world into two: "Dar al-Islam", which includes all believers
The Muslims and "Dar al Harb", the rest of the people on earth - which there are
destroy. Over time, a change in attitude occurred. The Muslims understood that if they killed
For all the infidels in the world there will be no one to pay them a skull tax
("Jizya"). So they adopted the attitude that those of the disbelievers would surrender
They can continue to practice their religion and pay taxes.

"The political imperative is to expand the world of Islam at the expense of the rest of the world
The other," says Orientalist Prof. Nehemiah Lev Zion from the Hebrew University
In Jerusalem, "this is the role of jihad. This is a permanent situation. As long as it exists
The commandment of 'Dar al Harb', to go to Jihad is a commandment. It is imposed on
The community, although it is not a personal duty like prayer or fasting. In order to
To encourage going to jihad, the believers need to be given a reward, a reward, and for that purpose it exists
The concept of the martyr. Whoever goes to Jihad and falls in a hole will be considered a martyr, will be converted
to the saint The one who fought in the campaign is called 'Shaheed al-Markah'. He will be buried on
His uniform and treatment will be different. Usually a body should be washed before
the burial But Shahid, in fact his fall is pure and ascends directly to the garden
Eden". The scholars of Halacha rely here on what Muhammad said in the battle of Uhud:
"Do not bathe the martyrs, for on the day of resurrection every one of their wounds will heal
A scent of musk."

The Prophet Muhammad named three types of martyrs: the first is the warrior
the one who goes into battle neither to kill nor to be killed; The other goes into battle
with the aim of killing the enemy without himself being killed, and the third seeks to kill
in the enemy and be killed. Everyone will get their reward, but the greatest reward will be
The lot of a martyr of the third kind. This behavior is called "Talav".
Al-Shahada" (The Prayer of Martyrdom). On Judgment Day he will appear with his sword
The pull is placed on him, he will be treated with more respect than the prophets
And he will dwell wherever he wants in heaven.

Conquering religion

The phenomenon of willingness to self-sacrifice in religious contexts exists in three ways
The monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The question is which one
The type of death the believer chooses is largely derived from one's position in the world
One of these religions in the years of its formation and development. During the heyday of
In the Roman Empire, Judaism and Christianity were synonymous religions. in contrast,
Islam was born in the 7th century AD, after the division in the Roman Empire,
In a time of global political vacuum, which allowed him to gain power and influence
relatively fast.

"The first Christians were passive. They accepted death with love. they
Turn the other cheek," says Dr. Aviad Kleinberg from the department
for general history at Tel Aviv University. Kleinberg, who specializes in Genesis
Christianity, claims that "there is no evidence of persecuted Christians trying to defend
themselves. From the time of Nero Caesar in the first century AD to the fourth century
AD they are led like sheep to the slaughter. The principle that guided them was that there was authority
which is beyond human authority, and for which it is worth dying. if you are running
In the name of this authority, you are beyond good and evil." The death model
The first Christians had Jesus. He is the sheep led to the pilgrim, who died
Atones for all iniquities.

However, Christianity gradually moved from pacifism to a "Samsonian" concept of "you will die."
My soul is with Philistines," says Kleinberg. The transformation in perception, according to which people
that those who die in war are saints, developed during the Crusades since the
11.However, there is no phenomenon of suicide in Christianity. The fighting crusader leaves
Maybe for suicide missions, but there is no sanctification of suicides. Christianity is repulsive
this phenomenon. The suicide, according to her perception, does not gain anything."

Judaism condemns suicide, but it also raises a series of practices for a miracle
suicide. Some of them were considered miraculous acts or were interpreted as sanctification of God
and were a cornerstone in the historical myth. Among the most prominent were the death of Samson
and the suicide of King Saul after the defeat in the campaign against the Philistines in Gilboa.
But the terms "Shamed" and "Kiddush Hashem" were coined following the decrees during the period
Greek and Roman rule. In the book of Maccabi XNUMX it is told about the death of Hannah and her seven sons.
Rabbi Akiva was among the temples of Hashem following the Bar Kochba rebellion in 135
AD He was executed because he insisted on reading the Shema.

But the most prominent suicide incident of all, although not the only one of its kind, was
The mass suicide in Masada in 73, three years after the destruction of a house
Crimson. There were also mass suicides in Yodafat and Gamla. about a thousand years
Later, in the 11th century
A similar event took place in the Rhine Valley in Germany. during the first crusade
The Christians placed before the Jewish communities in Magnatza and Vermiza the
The choice: baptism or death (Decrees of the New Testament). The Jews chose to die on
the sanctification of Hashem. Hundreds of Jews killed their children and wives and then
kill yourself Dr. Israel Yuval from the Department of History of the People of Israel
At the Hebrew University he studied the effects this had on public opinion
the christian It turns out that the mass suicide was among the factors that shaped the
The image of the Jews as possessing murderous qualities. "But the Jews who committed suicide
They didn't kill others," says Yuval, "they said: it's not worth it for us to live in the world
in which we cannot fulfill our faith. They preferred the spiritual existence
over physical existence".

Compared to the defensive context in which Christianity operated at the beginning and Judaism, in 200
In the first years of its existence, Islam was a conquering and victorious religion. Already in the century
On the 9th the Muslims reached the peak of their power and prosperity. Indeed, all the promises of Gan
Eden that appears in the Koran and traditions are from the first hundred years of
Islam. They are designed to develop a fighting culture. Beginning in the 11th century
Islam for protection. At this point, another phenomenon, that of martyrs, was increasing
who gave their lives in internal Islamic struggles (such as the wars between
Shiites to Sunnis).

The virtues of martyrdom compared to the sanctity of life, says Prof. Kohlberg,
have been discussed by Islamic jurists in a clear connection to the discussion of Jihad.
One of the questions that preoccupied them was: Is it permissible for a single warrior to attack a force
big of the enemy? One of the founders of the Hanafi school, Muhammad bin al-Hasan
Al-Shibani, who lived in the second half of the 8th century AD, said: To Adam
A single person is allowed to attack even a thousand enemy men if there is a reasonable chance that he will be left
alive or he will hit the enemy before he is killed. If there is a significant fear that he will be killed
Without him harming the enemy, because then his action is obscene, since he exposes himself
to death without any expected profit for the Muslims.

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It is likely, then, that the martyrs of today would have received a permit immediately
The Hanafi school, on one condition - that they direct their actions against fighters
and not against civilians. As an action "against the enemy", they certainly stand
In the criteria set by Muhammad bin al-Hasan al-Shibani.

To what extent, if at all, is the phenomenon of suicide terrorism, which Israel experiences, related
In the flesh today, to the texts that appear in the historical sources of Islam?
Prof. Kohlberg says that "there is indeed continuity here, but the situation
different than in the Middle Ages. There are things here that were not there before. There was none
Once upon a time a state like the Jewish state, which is perceived as a state of infidels,
was established within an area considered waqf belonging to Islam. The development in thinking
The Palestinian movement in this direction began to take shape already in 1967, but it caught on
acceleration in recent years. The radical Palestinian movements rely
Today texts from the Middle Ages must come to explain the phenomenon of the martyrs."

In his article, Kohlberg writes that "there are Muslim halachic scholars today, who state
It is clear that if there were modern explosives in the days of the Prophet Muhammad, there would be
The Muslims use them in exactly the same way as the martyred warriors today."