(Jerusalem Post) Alan M. Dershowitz - While some people believe that suicide bombing results from desperation and oppression, there is no such link as a matter of fact or history. Suicide bombing is a tactic selected by privileged, educated, and wealthy elitists because it has proven successful. Why do these overprivileged and well-educated young men and women support this culture of death, while impoverished and oppressed Tibetans continue to celebrate life despite their occupation by China for half a century? The answer lies in differences among the leadership. The leaders of Islamic radical causes, especially the Wahhabis, advocate and incite suicide terrorism, while the leaders of other causes, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., advocated different means. The bombers accept death because they have been incited into a frenzy of hatred by imams preaching "Kill the infidels." The time has come to address the real root cause of suicide bombing: elitist incitement by certain religious and political leaders who are creating a culture of death and exploiting the ambiguous teachings of an important religion.
2004-05-24 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive