‘SUICIDE BOMBERS AND MARTYDOM’

As billions of Muslims throng in joyous celebration into the prayer grounds around the world to mark the end of Ramadan I wish to explore the theme of heroes versus suicide bombers. In the past I have suggested that there is an illusionary idea in the ‘warped’ minds of misguided people who are transformed into suicide bombers. They consider themselves heroes to their cause and religion.  So often their own airwaves are lavish with the use of the emotive word ‘martyrs’ in relation to them.  Some of these people involved in many bombings in Nigeria, of the Boka Haram variety equate ‘martyrdom’ to the same level as heroism.  In my constancy I do wonder why these people crave the need for ‘martyrdom’ instead of heroism?   

In the past some have suggested that it is poverty and oppression coupled with hopelessness that is at the root cause.  I draw from one of two sources to unpack and deconstruct this assumption. The case of Murat Tawalbi who in May 2003 was arrested near Haifa, before the arrest he had planned to convert his body into a human bomb in a crowded marketplace and therefore propel him to ‘paradise’.  An entry into his mind, revealed no doubt he thought of taking advantage of the promises of innumerable company of virgins and the associated fantasies as a reward.[1] 

This 19 years old and came from a refugee camp near the West Bank town of Jenin.  He felt his brother who recruited him to this mission was in his own words doing him a huge favour: 

“He wasn't trying to make me wear an explosive belt. He was giving me a ticket to heaven.  Because he loves me, he wants me to become a martyr.  Because martyrdom is the most exalted thing in our religion. Not just anyone gets the chance to become a martyr.”


Thank God!  Murad failed but others have succeeded.  Rather naively I ask again what drives them towards what I consider an unthinkable insanity?

“I don't know of a single case of a person who is really psychotic,” says Merari. “And still, this absolute absence of fear, I doubt that it is a general personality characteristic. I doubt that this person under any circumstances would be fearless. On this mission, to which he was prepared for so long, like a coiled spring that just wants to be released.”

Research by Dr David Stevens[2], of the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, suggests that the widely-held view of suicide bombers as brain-washed religious fanatics, vulnerable through youth and poverty, is not an accurate one.  He goes on to argue that while religion does plays a central role — there are few instances of non-religiously motivated suicide attacks — the suicide bomber is also driven on another level by a rational thought process.  This is the desire to be part of a group that engenders strength and solidarity from strictness, and encourages members to submit totally to the collective aims of the group.  Being part of an exclusive group with very strict beliefs requires intense commitment, and engenders a deep belief in shared experience and self-sacrifice.

In other words suicide bombers are thus motivated by a “simple cost-benefit analysis”, in which the 'benefits' of self-destruction outweighs the cost. The benefits are perceived by the terrorist to be so great — in terms of membership of the group, achievement of collective goals, the promise of benefits in the after-life, and so on — that they outweigh the cost.  The benefits are perceived to be so great as to justify the action. Fortunately this is so only in extreme instances, under certain circumstances.

The attractions of intense solidarity does not only apply to fringe Islamic sects, but also to other extreme religious groups, Dr Stevens said.  Many members of other such groups — from the Moonies to the Branch Davidians — explain their decisions to join, and as importantly to leave, in terms of the costs and benefits of participation rather than in the context of a 'brainwashing' process.

Dr Stevens also argues that contrary to popular opinion, poverty, isolation and lack of education are not typical features of the bomber profile. Mohammad Sidique Khan, for example, who blew himself up in London on July 7, 2005, murdering six people in the process, was a 30-year-old with a young family of his own and a job working in primary schools with special needs children.

Another contributor, Dr. Ariel Merari, head of the Center for Political Violence at Tel Aviv University, has studied every suicide bombing in the Middle East since the U.S. Marine barracks were blown up in Beirut 18 years ago.  He says the only abnormal thing about the suicide bomber is, at a certain point, a total absence of fear[3].

So allow me to delve further into this word martyrdom and in the process allow me to attempt to demystify it.

I conclude by borrowing from the West Wing series as I attempt to define the word ‘martyr’.  A ‘martyr’ is described as someone who would rather suffer death at the hands of an oppressor than renounce his beliefs.  I contrast this strongly with those who as suicide bombers kill themselves and innocent people in order to make their point.  I consider their bombing sick, twisted and brutal murder so unspeakable.  Today in this world and in Nigeria our priority need is not for martyrs, it is, however, the need for heroes, for a hero would die for his country or a cause but he would much rather live for it.  

[1] Simon, Bob ‘Mind Of The Suicide Bomber’ May 25, 2003 downloaded 29th August 2008 from Mind Of The Suicide Bomber  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/23/60minutes/main555344.shtml 

[2] Stevens, David (2007) ‘Inside The Mind Of A Suicide Bomber’ Science Daily (June 21, 2007)

[3] Stevens, David (2007) Op. Cit.