Is This Using Reason?

Well, the hot topic remains to be the Pope and RADICAL Islam. I really wasn't sure what to post, but given that it is close to the end of the day, I'll go ahead and post something, although I was wondering about posting it. I can't even post a picture because I got a bit too freaked out when I did an image search on Google for "suicide bomber." (Let's just say that they are not just vaporized like you think).

It is along the lines of the previous post of watching what the Arab world says. I found an interesting section on Al-Jazeera Magazine's web site which is a question and answer column. From the few articles I read, it looks more like a way for those who oppose RADICAL Islam to write in with questions and for Al-Jazeera to give a very biased answer.

Someone wrote in with a question asking how the suicide bombers in Iraq and Palistine can be considered Muslims if they are committing suicide, since this is forbidden in the Qur'an. The answer was rather disturbing, and avoided some realities, like: rarely if ever have suicide bombers attacked only soldiers.

There’s no way to compare a Palestinian who blows up himself to kill a few Israeli soldiers, baring in mind that Palestinians do not have weapons or ammunition like those sent to the Israelis by the U.S. every year, to a person who carries out a bomb attack that results in the death of dozens and hundreds of civilians in Iraq.

What’s taking place in Palestine is anti-occupation resistance, but what’s happening in Iraq should be split into anti-occupation resistance, like carrying out attacks that kill occupation troops, who are actually a legitimate target, and rebel or insurgent attacks that claim civilian lives.

When a man blows up himself and looses his life in executing his/her operation, called by worldwide media as “suicide bombing”, to save other people’s lives, his nation, those civilians who’re killed every day at the hands of the occupation troops, like what we see in Israel, this does not count as suicide but as a sacrifice in holy war and, therefore, as martyrdom.

Let me quote the prominent Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssuf Al Qaradawi speaking on this issue during a visit to UK in 2004, were he was asked in an exclusive interview with Newsnight to comment on what most of the Western media refers to as suicide bombing in the Occupied Palestinian territories.

“It's not suicide, it is martyrdom in the name of God, Islamic theologians and jurisprudents have debated this issue. Referring to it as a form of Jihad, under the title of jeopardizing the life of the Mujahadeen. It is allowed to jeopardize your soul and cross the path of the enemy and be killed."

Frightening. These people are being taught how to die for Allah, but they are not being taught how to live for Allah.

Read the whole question with its answer here.