Somewhere in a cramped room with a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, a young man sits hunched over, clutching an object he believes will make him a hero. His eyes burn with a strange fire, the fire of someone convinced that destruction can somehow lead to glory. He’s been told his name will be remembered. He has been told that his family will be blessed. He has been told that by blowing himself up he will blow open the gates of heaven.
If he only paused for half a second, he would hear the sound of a whisper. Not from an angel. Not from God. A whisper from his own conscience asking a simple question: “Is this what God wants?”
But that whisper is drowned out by louder voices. Voices that tell him thinking is unnecessary. Voices that have carefully removed the very instrument that makes us human: the ability to reason.
You see, the suicide bomber does not walk or drive into a marketplace or a school or a station because he has thought deeply.
He has stopped thinking altogether. His so-called mentors have taken away his mind, packed it away, tied it up with ritualistic slogans, and replaced it with hatred disguised as faith.
In his imagination, he sees himself rising in heavenly glory. He sees light. He sees applause. He sees himself embraced by celestial beings. But in reality, what awaits him is a flash, a sound, a cloud of smoke, and then silence. No applause. No glory. Only shattered lives, broken families, and maybe a mother who will never understand why her child turned himself into a weapon.
The tragedy is not only the death he causes. The tragedy is that he dies believing a lie. He dies thinking that God delights in violence. He dies thinking that the Creator of the universe needs the help of a confused youngster carrying a carload of explosives. He dies thinking that heaven is a reward for harming the innocent.
What a terrible miscalculation.
All because someone more cunning than him convinced him that the greatest act of devotion is to throw away the very gift God gave. The gift of life!
What can be more wrong than that?
And as we watch the aftermath on television, as we hear the sirens and see the blood on the pavement, we should remind ourselves that the war against terror begins long before a button is pressed. It begins when a child is taught hate instead of compassion and when religion gets twisted.
The suicide bomber thinks he will be celebrated in heaven. But heaven does not celebrate murder. Heaven celebrates mercy.
If only that doctor knew this truth, he would have unclenched his fists, untied those hateful thoughts, and stepped into the world with hands that were meant to heal not destroy…!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
“Believing a lie.” That’s the crux of what is happening. It’s dumbfounding and scary how someone can be convinced to kill others, without thinking for themselves. Perhaps that’s why they say it’s blind hatred.
An important message that must be repeated time and again till someone listens and says ‘no’ to their handlers.
Yes Oliver. Thank you
Suicide Bombers are DOMAIN of CRUELTY. They kill them selves aware of the harms They are harming INNOCENT persons.
True Mr Kukreja, thank you.
It is such a devastating truth that you have aptly voiced, Bob. May many read and hear the voice of Wisdom and Conscience so easily stilled by Lies. May Truth arise and every lie be scattered! May the Light shine through Darkness and the Voice of Wisdom be heard!
Yes Linda, thank you.
Children who are taught hatred and have their faith twisted, lose the very light by which the mind sees truth, as their souls are plucked even before they have the chance to bloom.
Convinced that violence and murder are sacred offerings, they are led to believe that destruction is a stairway to heaven.
Yet the terrorist tragically fails to grasp that true devotion is rooted in compassion, treasures the gift of life, and bows to mercy.
No act of violence has ever sown anything but ruin, and nothing worthwhile can grow from its ashes.
Thank you Ayesha- your words have said it all.
Thr real tragedy in life and of life is believing in a lie . The worst irony is that Doctors and Physicians meant to heal and sustain Life surrender themselves to the LIE and become willing agents of the lie to destroy LIFE . ALL IN GOD’S NAME.
May we still hope and pray that better senses prevail..
Yes Thomas, that truth will overcome the LIE. Thank you.
It is ironic that these suicide bombers who are trained like cattle in a ruthless environment, equivalent to hell, are granted a “licence to kill” and are led to believe that eternal salvation can be attained by mass murder and self sacrifice in the name of God.
The fact is that they are ignorant victims, “children of a lesser God” themselves. A self-made hell on earth.
When children and youth are taught to hate. Faith and religion are twisted by fanatics it is a deadly combination that robs the young of the ability to think and reason. The promise of Paradise causes them to lose the capacity for mercy and compassion. Those responsible for corrupting these innocents are the horrendous criminals who often go scot-free.