The Muslims had been conducting suicide bombings against civilians at least since the Algerian war with France in 1950s. It certainly didn't begin with the Iranian Ayatollah. One should also point out in most cases, whatever the religious overtones, majority of suicide bombers serve an underlying narrow secular cause. Suicide bombing as a secular tactic may in our eyes be beyond the pail, but that's because of our norms and conventions, not because of the intrinsic incompatibility between suicide bombing and secular causes. Kamakaze pilots were not Muslims. The Japanese would have launched Kamakaze attacks against US civilian targets if only they had planes with enough range. This is in principle not different from suicide bombing. Tamil tigers are not Muslims either.
In the case of the Algerian war, the secular cause was to overthrow the French occupation. In the case of Gaza strip and inside Iserael, it is to roll back the Isrealis. In the case of Moscow, it is likely to expell Russian influence from Northern caucasus region. In all cases, where there is a gross assymmetry of military power, and the sides can not or will not separate, and the weaker side finds it utterly impossible to reconcile itself to the asserted interests of the stronger side, there will be bombings. If bombings of sufficiently juicy targets is difficult, then there will be suicide bombings.
What Islam added to the mix is not a unique tendency towards suicide attacks. Instead what Islam is doing is to make the weaker side, the Muslim side, stuck in the 12th century mind set in terms of social organization, intellectual outlook. It makes it impossible for the much of Muslim world to become reconciled to the asserted interests of modernity. As a result, Islam keeps much of Muslim world stuck in a state where they have to resort to suicide bombing.
The evil of Islam is not that it makes it easier for the individual to be a suicide bomber. The evil of Islam is it keeps entire societies on the fringe of modernity, where they feel overwhelmed by the power of modernity and yet unable to adapt to modernity. So they resort to the main way they can still hurt the sources of modernity, which is suicide bombings.
In the case of the Algerian war, the secular cause was to overthrow the French occupation. In the case of Gaza strip and inside Iserael, it is to roll back the Isrealis. In the case of Moscow, it is likely to expell Russian influence from Northern caucasus region. In all cases, where there is a gross assymmetry of military power, and the sides can not or will not separate, and the weaker side finds it utterly impossible to reconcile itself to the asserted interests of the stronger side, there will be bombings. If bombings of sufficiently juicy targets is difficult, then there will be suicide bombings.
What Islam added to the mix is not a unique tendency towards suicide attacks. Instead what Islam is doing is to make the weaker side, the Muslim side, stuck in the 12th century mind set in terms of social organization, intellectual outlook. It makes it impossible for the much of Muslim world to become reconciled to the asserted interests of modernity. As a result, Islam keeps much of Muslim world stuck in a state where they have to resort to suicide bombing.
The evil of Islam is not that it makes it easier for the individual to be a suicide bomber. The evil of Islam is it keeps entire societies on the fringe of modernity, where they feel overwhelmed by the power of modernity and yet unable to adapt to modernity. So they resort to the main way they can still hurt the sources of modernity, which is suicide bombings.
