Serious question about suicide bombers...?

Question

I usually do not get involved with questions about potical violence or Islam but I just had a thought after reading someone's question.

Do you think suicide bombers (they call themselves Maryters) would be MORE EFFECTIVE at accomplishing their poltical objectives if they only killed themselves?


Do you remember or know of the stories from Vietnam when Buddhists monks delibertly killed themselves (by pouring gasoline overthemselves and being burnt to death)? That had a HUGE impact on the psychie of the world and was part of what lead to the anti-war movement.

I think the reason most people around the world do not sympathise with suicide bombers is because they kill others indiscriminitly. What if they showed their sincerity by only killing themselves? I think the world would stand up and take notice of their cause.

Right now, almost no one really cares what there cause is.

Any thoughts?

Sorry for all the spelling mistakes... I wrote it in a frenzy (too much coffey this morning).

Answer 1

I agree that it would have a bigger impact. By taking innocent lives it just makes everyone even more upset. I have a picture of the monk you wrote about....and it had a huge impact on me. That is true protest. The amazing thing is, the monk didn't flinch the entire time. I guess with the suicide bombers it's much easier for them to go out knowing that they are taking so many with them. That makes them even more cowardly.

Answer 2

O.k. it's like this

a person that just kills himself will get us out of there faster true.
It will make the American people to try to stop the war harder then it ever has and would give them a better name.

But this is not what they are truely after. Think about Pearl Harbor for a minute. They suicide bombed us to slow us down.

Today it's used for a totally different reason. See when Terrorist attacked the twin towers they made us fight them. They were hoping to cripple us but it did not work. instead it pissed us off.

They still want to cripple us or destroy us, but they know we are too powerfull for them, so what to do, hmm.

I got it, do whatever it takes to make the rest of the world hate the U.S. wow sounds like a good idea. But how is this best way they can do that?? hmm. I got it keep telling everybody that the U.S. thinks they are better then everybody else. Make other countries fearfull. If we pissed them off they could come here next and destroy us.

Now all they would need is too prove it. I got it lets keep them fighting us as long as we can. If we act like we are trying to fight oppression by any means necessary then they won't think badly of us. And if we keep on making sure the world knows every bad thing they do, eventually they will believe us.

The suicide bombers is a way for them to keep us over there while they keep telling the rest of the World that we are going against thier beliefs.

Think about it. People can relate to people doing what ever it took to stop thier country from being over ran. It's a lot harder to explain why we went thier in the first place and why we are still over there.

We are over thier to rebuild thier country. Why did we destroy it in the first place. Terrorism, sorry; but there were and still are worse countries the Iraq. So no matter how you look at it, it's very easy for them to paint us as the bad guys.

Answer 3

Well, let's just picture if the 9/11 hijackers had just poured gasoline on themselves and set themselves on fire. I guarantee it wouldn't have gotten 1/10th of the media exposure. And media exposure is what terrorists are after (not just terrorists but also political propogandists and radicals).

I'll tell you what would be effective. If they were to use a Pied Piper approach, and convince a whole lot of middle-class children to all kill themselves on the same day using a method that would be unique and unmistakeable. Then their enemies would shake in their boots, and would have no choice but to pay attention to their cause.

Answer 4

If you kill one innocent man or woman it is as if you kill all of man kind.

Point blank suicide bombers ARE NOT MARYTERS. They are confused and frustrated individuals who have gotten caught up in a wave of confustion about the religion of Islam.

Suicide is not permitted. There are some people who have taken a hadith about a man who ACCIDENTILY killed himself while swinging his sward in battle and twised it to mean something else.

As for your question Suicide is wrong but they may get more simpathy. But they would do better to do an indepth study of Islam WITHOUT the help of radical leaders before they get caught up and handle it as the prophet would have.

Answer 5

The Buddhist monks killed themselves in a form of actual protest. These guys are doing it just to kill innocent people. There is something seriously wrong when a ten year old kid will go to their father and say they wanna be a suicide bomber, and their father is *proud* of them.

Answer 6

Suicide is a sin. It was never God's plan for one to kill ones self to go to heaven. It is a greater sin to kill citizens along with self.

I don't believe getting killed in battle against the enemy who attacks your own people or innocent people elsewhere is suicide, or a sin. It is fighting for a righteous cause, to protect the innocent.

Suicide bombers wake up in hell, because they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior. They have rejected God's Salvation plan. Conscience alone would tell people suicide is wrong & killing civilians is wrong. I don't care what spiritual leader would tell me to do it. I wouldn't do this great sin. I'd end up in hell.

If a religion is won by the sword, intimidation, suicide, false treaties, etc.....that religion should not win. It should be destroyed.

Answer 7

Yeah I agree, although I think their cause would be most effective any other way besides killing themselves. When they kill other people its just like a murderer or criminal and when has any person ever listened to a criminal or mass murderer for advice or how the criminal felt on a subject? I haven't and won't any time soon. I think a lot of people would agree when I say: when you take other people's lives you have lost your right to be heard.

Answer 8

I think that is a brilliant suggestion. The message would be more powerful if suicide bombers just killed themselves, because they would basically be saying their existence is so terrible because of oppression that they no longer want to exist. However, when they kill other people too, their only message (to me) is that they hate the enemy more than they love themselves.

Answer 9

While killing just themselves and not taking innocent people out is easily more fair (they decide their own destiny but not others), the problem is that few people in other countries would care.

Seriously, would the average American care enough -- and care enough to fight to make changes in foreign policy -- if a small number of people over in Iraq killed themselves in protest?

Another thing is, the suicides you mentioned (I am intuiting) did not kill themselves in order to control others and make them change things. They were monks, and killed themselves in order to maintain their own spiritual integrity -- regardless of how ANYONE else responded.

The "terrorists" would at best be trying to force someone else to do what they wanted by putting guns to their own heads.

There's a big difference in watching a suicide jump off a bridge (for example) out of depression, loss of hope, a hard life, remorse, etc (we feel sorry for them and want to help others with their bad feelings), versus a guy jumping off a building to make a political point and trying to force us to do something he wants. We would be offended and angry at him, for doing such a stupid thing to himself as well as trying to manipulate us.

Anyway, I think the situation with the monks worked due to their motivations, their particular belief system, and the tone of the world at the time. We are much more callous to such things today unless they directly impact our lives.

I mean, even the horrific "911" made lots of changes in people's lives for a period of time... but nowadays (unless you lost loved ones -- then the loss reverberates forever), aside from feeling bad about it as a nostalgic thing, most Americans who had no direct connection to the event have moved on with their lives. Republicans and Democrats argue over partisan politics. We're usually absorbed in our technology and entertainment and our search for personal fulfillment. Entertainers who are still emotionally immature still get all the attention in the media. Even with a lot of American deaths, life has mostly "gone back to normal."

Whether right or wrong, most people would not bother with Iraq if Iraq did not bother with them. While I find terrorism heinous, I think they do get more attention to their issues by killing innocent people rather than just themselves.

Answer 10

Both will work. And either one will take a long time before a nation really giveup and return the control to them. Terror acts will remind people not to enter that area again. Suicide impact only last a short time.