In search of a strategy to end suicide attacks

The successive and outrageous suicide bomb attacks taking place over the last month in various places, from Iraq to Yemen, from Nigeria to Pakistan, and from Turkey to Brussels, seem to be the precursor of a new wave of global terrorism. The significant increase in the number, frequency and severity of suicide attacks makes us think that ordinary people may be facing this ugly face of terrorism in the near future far more often. on March 27, a suicide attack targeted a park in Pakistan’s city of Lahore, killing 72 people, many of them women and children and leaving nearly 350 people injured as well. It has been reported that the suicide bomber came near children’s play area and exploded the bomb he was wearing. Only two days before this incident, a suicide attack at a stadium in the Iraqi city of Iskandariyah, also known as Alexandria, killed 41 people and wounded 105 others. And three bomb-laden cars exploded in different checkpoints at the Yemeni city of Aden a few days ago, killing 26 people. On March 16, an attack by two female suicide bombers, claimed to be proponents of Boko Haram, targeted a mosque in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri during the prayer time, killing 24 Muslims and wounding 23.Also within the month of March, suicide bombings in the cities of Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey, carried out by the terrorist organisation PKK, killed nearly 50 people, wounding dozens.These are only a few examples of suicide bomb attacks that occurred only in March. There has been a suicide attack almost every day around the world in the recent times.The suicide attacks martyr thousands of Muslims every year in Islamic countries and are inhumanely considered as “the natural dynamics of the Middle East region” by some Western circles. Upon the acknowledgement of the indecent nature of these statements since the Paris attacks in 2015, the recent suicide attacks on March 22 at two different places in Brussels, considered the heart of Europe, alarmed the Western world. Western society has now faced the fact that terrorism is not something that only the Middle East has to put up with, but a disaster increasingly engulfing the world. Since the 1980s, many ideological groups have begun to embrace the suicide attacks as a method of terror; foremost among them are Marxist-Communist terrorist organisations and radical religious terrorist groups.These terrorist organisations motivate their suicide bombers in line with the so-called values of the ideology they subscribe to, then persuade and prepare them for these violent actions. Such motivation comes from emotional and idealistic indoctrinations in Marxist-Communist groups. Accordingly, whereas individuals are considered ordinary, worthless and insignificant people, they are talked into “being a hero of freedom who would become immortal by leaving their mark on the world and having their names written in the history of revolution”. In radical religious groups, the motivation for suicide attacks is achieved by the abuse of  religious values such as “jihad, martyrdom and attaining Heaven”. As a matter of fact, there is no basis for this to be found in the Holy Qur’an; there is no theological basis to justify these dastardly attacks.Quite the contrary, suicide attacks are haram (forbidden) according to the Qur’an and these attacks are nothing but mass murder, intentionally killing not only the attackers themselves but also innocent people. This must be remembered that ending one’s own life is also a homicide. God, in the 32nd verse of Surat Al-Ma’ida, says that “...if someone kills another person, it is as if he had murdered all mankind”. For that reason, the idea that God would like such a brutal action committed without distinguishing between babies, children, elderly people, women and innocent people can only be the product of an ignorant, unconscious, irrational and misdirected mind, unaware of the Qur’an. These ignorant and unconscious individuals are sometimes brainwashed by ignorant religious scholars and sometimes by deceitful and fanatical religious hucksters drawing their strength from radicalism. Under such pernicious influences, some people become prepared to carry out all kinds of violent and fanatical acts. Occasionally the young children in poor families, who are in need of free education and accommodation, are considered as the most favoured candidates for becoming suicide bombers by radical organisations. Indeed, according to the testimony of a 12-year-old child who was recently recruited to carry out a suicide attack in a camp near Peshawar but surrendered himself to the security forces of Afghanistan, there are many children trained by their handlers who promise them “that they will go to heaven and be freed from all their problems by carrying out a suicide attack”. People who are encouraged to be a suicide bomber in Marxist-Communist groups are also deceived by the lies of anarchism-communism and are subjected to a serious ideological training. That being said, there is no point in intimidating those misdirected people who are happy to run the risk of death in the cause of fake or false ideologies with death threats, bombs, weapons or operations. These methods have caused nothing but an increase in the number of suicide bombers until today. Violence always begets more violence. Indeed, the information gathered by various intelligence sources tells us there are hundreds of suicide bombers trained by various factions and believed to be operating as independent cells right now in Europe and the US, waiting for the time to make their moves. The majority of them were born and raised in those countries, are going to good schools and have no criminal record; as a result, it is nearly impossible to identify them. These ignorant and deceived people become more and more excited to experience the feelings of panic, helplessness, fear and intimidation that arise in society every time a new suicide attack is made. Therefore, what needs to be done to reverse this dire situation is very clear: The ideological falsehoods behind these suicide attacks, regardless of the philosophy they advocate, should be explained in schools, at conferences and exhibitions through scientific evidence by any means necessary and kept on the agenda by politicians and opinion leaders; in short, everyone, whether young or old, in a leading position in the society. The only solution is to explain these crucial facts, to intellectually refute this fanatical radical ideology by means of Qur’anic, rational and reasonable explanations with the aim of rooting out terrorism, and to urgently launch an extensive campaign for providing education and raising awareness. The anarchist-communist ideology, on the other hand, can also be ended by revealing the fallacy of the materialistic mindset. If societies would like to end suicide attacks, they need to enhance their education systems and respond to the wrong ideologies with the right ones instead of laying the foundations for further violence or restricting the freedoms of their citizens.- Harun Yahya may be followed at @Harun_Yahya and www.harunyahya.com