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Although religion is not directly
connected, it however matters how religion is interpreted. In all cases of
suicide bombing, the encouragement is there either through mis interpretation
from religious scripture or otherwise. We may say that it is local culture which
determines that; and local cultures pulls from everywhere: Religion, patriotism,
tradition etc. Unless local culture can create an atmosphere where suicide
bombing is sanctioned by a society or by a section of society, suicide bombing
can not be there. The reason we donot see too many suicide bombing in Hinduism
may be because people have not successfully mis interpreted
religious doctrines towards suicide bombing. Or the patriotism or tradition
is not strong. Our Karma theory may also prevent SB. This is not to say that
tomorrow it cannot or will not be done. The bottom-line is the local society
will have to create the atmosphere to sanction SB. Same is true of corruption
etc. It depends on the local culture. To remove the evil, you will have reform
the local society.
In case of corruption in Assam, if we take
think that local society cannot be reformed because of the bigger Indian
society, this will mean that local Assamese society is demoralized and depressed
whatever the cause may be.
Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 11:34
AM
Subject: RE: [Assam] It takes a
village?
Santanu,
Your observations are correct. I don't think suicide bombing is
monopolized by one religious group though it has been used more frequently by
one group. It looks like use or non-use of violence is determined more by
culture than by any religious belief or teaching. I don't think Koran says
that by committing suicide one can go to heaven (what is that?).
Exactly what do you mean by a Hindu suicide bomber? Wasn't Rajiv
Gandhi assasinated by a "Hindu" who was also a suicide bomber?
Suidicide bombing is quite well and alive among the
LTTE, almost all of whom are "Hindus". Self immolation for
political causes is rampant in south India.
No
society believes in suicide. And every society I know of believes in
martyrdom - in some form or the other.
Santanu.
After all is said and done, there is
another side of the equation. One will have to answer why there is no
Hindu suicide bomber or an Assamese suicide bomber. And you don't have to
struggle for the answer.
- It is because the Hindu society or
Assamese society donot believe in suicide. Islam does. In Islam, one can
go to haven by committying suicide for the country.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 9:33
AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] It takes a
village?
> >If you want to stop a wave of suicide bombings,
the likes of which we are
> >seeing in Iraq, it takes a village.
I am a big believer that the greatest
> >restraint on human
behavior is not laws and police, but culture and
> >religious
authority.
>
>
> *** That is a very interesting
belief. It is a convenient one, now that suicide-
> bombings have
become the norm in Iraq where none existed and after
> thousands of
innocents have been slaughtered by US bombs for which no
> village
nor religious outrage was anywhere to be seen or heard, and
>
particularly since Iraqis had nothing to do with 9/11. I don't recall
Friedman's
> outrage at the killing of Iraqi innocents by US
bombing. Where was his faith?
> Where was his village of the
righteous?
>
> The politics of religion is no different from
any other poiltics. Suicide
> bombing is an act of desperation
against an overwhelming enemy. It is
> assymetrical warfare at its
most assymetrical.
>
> The expressions of outrage like
Friedman's or those of others who find
> common cause with it is
selective ast best, and thus will go nowhere, as
> history amply
illustrates.
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > From: Dilip/Dil Deka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Date: 2005/05/18 Wed AM 09:42:39 EDT
> > To:
ASSAMNETCOLORADO <[email protected]>
> > Subject: [Assam] It takes a village?
> >
> > >From the article below, I quote, "In identifying the
problem, though, Mr.
> Na'mat also identifies the solution. If you
want to stop a wave of suicide
> bombings, the likes of which we
are seeing in Iraq, it takes a village. I am a
> big believer that
the greatest restraint on human behavior is not laws and
> police,
but culture and religious authority. It is what the community, what the
> village, deems shameful. That is what restrains people. So how do
we get the
> Sunni Arab village to delegitimize suicide bombers?"
> >
> > Laws and police, or shame on the
perpetrators by means of culture? Which
> one do you think works
better? Does religion (as Friedman says) have any role
> in
bringing about restraint?
> > Dilip
> > Outrage and
SilenceBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
> > Published: May 18, 2005
>
>
> > It is hard not to notice two contrasting stories that
have run side by side
> during the past week. One is the story
about the violent protests in the
> Muslim world triggered by a
report in Newsweek (which the magazine has
> now retracted) that
U.S. interrogators at Guant?namo Bay desecrated a Koran
> by
throwing it into a toilet. In Afghanistan alone, at least 16 people were
> killed and more than 100 wounded in anti-American rioting that
has been
> linked to that report. I certainly hope that Newsweek
story is incorrect,
> because it would be outrageous if U.S.
interrogators behaved that way.
> > That said, though, in
the same newspapers one can read the latest reports
> from Iraq,
where Baathist and jihadist suicide bombers have killed 400 Iraqi
>
Muslims in the past month - most of them Shiite and Kurdish civilians
> shopping in markets, walking in funerals, going to mosques or
volunteering
> to join the police.
> >
> >
> >
> > Yet these mass murders - this desecration and
dismemberment of real
> Muslims by other Muslims - have not
prompted a single protest march
> anywhere in the Muslim world. And
I have not read of a single fatwa issued by
> any Muslim cleric
outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass
> murders of
Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers, many of
> whom, according to a Washington Post report, are coming from
Saudi Arabia.
> >
> > The Muslim world's silence about
the real desecration of Iraqis, coupled
> with its outrage over the
alleged desecration of a Koran, highlights what we
> are up against
in trying to stabilize Iraq - as well as the only workable
>
strategy going forward.
> >
> > The challenge we face
in Iraq is so steep precisely because the power shift
> the U.S.
and its allies are trying to engineer there is so profound - in both
> religious and political terms.
> >
> >
Religiously, if you want to know how the Sunni Arab world views a Shiite's
> being elected leader of Iraq, for the first time ever, think
about how whites in
> Alabama would have felt about a black
governor's being installed there in
> 1920. Some Sunnis do not
think Shiites are authentic Muslims, and are
> indifferent to their
brutalization.
> >
> > At the same time, politically
speaking, some Arab regimes prefer to see the
> pot boiling in Iraq
so the democratization process can never spread to their
>
countries. That's why their official newspapers rarely describe the
murders of
> civilians in Iraq as a massacre or acts of terror.
Such crimes are usually
> sanitized as "resistance" to
occupation.
> >
> > Salama Na'mat, the Washington
bureau chief for the London-based Arabic
> daily Al Hayat, wrote
the other day: "What is the responsibility of the [Arab]
> regimes
and the official and semiofficial media in the countries bordering Iraq
> in legitimizing the operations that murder Iraqis? ... Isn't
their goal to thwart
> [the emergence of] the newborn democracy in
Iraq so that it won't spread in
> the region?" (Translation by
Memri.)
> >
> > In identifying the problem, though,
Mr. Na'mat also identifies the solution.
> If you want to stop a
wave of suicide bombings, the likes of which we are
> seeing in
Iraq, it takes a village. I am a big believer that the greatest restraint
> on human behavior is not laws and police, but culture and
religious authority.
> It is what the community, what the village,
deems shameful. That is what
> restrains people. So how do we get
the Sunni Arab village to delegitimize
> suicide bombers?
>
>
> > Inside Iraq, obviously, credible Sunnis have to be
brought into the political
> process and constitution-drafting, as
long as they do not have blood on their
> hands from Saddam's days.
And outside Iraq, the Bush team needs to be
> forcefully demanding
that Saudi Arabia and other key Arab allies use their
> media,
government and religious systems to denounce and delegitimize the
>
despicable murder of Muslims by Muslims in Iraq.
> >
>
> If the Arab world, its media and its spiritual leaders, came out and
> forcefully and repeatedly condemned those who mount these suicide
attacks,
> and if credible Sunnis were given their fair share in
the Iraqi government, I am
> certain a lot of this suicide bombing
would stop, as happened with the
> Palestinians. Iraqi Sunnis would
pass on the intelligence needed to prevent
> these attacks, and
they would deny the suicide bombers the safe houses they
> need to
succeed.
> >
> > That is the only way it stops,
because we don't know who is who. It takes
> the village - and
right now the Sunni Arab village needs to be pressured and
>
induced to restrain those among them who are engaging in these suicidal
> murders of innocents.
> >
> > The best way to
honor the Koran is to live by the values of mercy and
> compassion
that it propagates.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
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