In our day and age, mostly Muslims are involved in suicide bombings.
LONDON: This is with reference to the article “Why equate suicide attacks with Islam?” by Naveed Hussain (September 8). In our day and age, mostly Muslims (or RAW, CIA, Mossad agents if that is what you believe) are involved in suicide bombings. Yes, Kamikaze pilots were also suicide bombers. However, the Japanese in the 1940s did not have 24-hour television or the internet to magnify their narrative. Also, the iconography associated with such attacks carries a lot of Islamic archetypes.
When Muslims suicide bombers air their wills in videos, there is heavy religious symbolism, such as Quranic verses being played in the background and so on. In addition, religion is framed prominently when individuals give interviews to western journalists or even local journalists. They prominently refer to it and to terms such as “jihad” which are associated only with Islam. The picture is painted with an Islamic brush, and, as Mr Hussain writes, this has several interpretations. Or we could just say that this is a maligned and nefarious campaign against Islam and that would be the end of that.
Nadir El-Edroos
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2010.
