Suicide bombers in Bangladesh and beyond

Suicide bombing has become a favourite with guerrillas, rebels, and especially terrorist groups, notably in the Middle East and Sri Lanka since the 1980s, for its high lethality. According to Yoram Schweitzer of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel, the Tamil Tigers were the most effective and brutal terrorist organization ever to utilize suicide terrorism. Since the Tigers signed a cease-fire in 2001, suicide bombings by Islamist terrorists, mostly in the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the Iraqi insurgency, have been the most frequent and cumulatively destructive. The September 11, 2001 attacks in NewYork using hijacked airplanes became the largest and most destructive individual suicide bombings.

The doctrine of asymmetric warfare views suicide bombing as an imbalance of power, in which groups with little significant power resort to suicide bombing as a response to actions of a group with greater power. Suicide bombings are only common when one side in a violent conflict lacks the means for effective and conventional attacks. The cost-benefit analysis of suicide bombing, expressed by Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, is: "The method of martyrdom operation is the most successful way of inflicting damage against the opponent and the least costly to the mujahidin in terms of casualties." The strategic rationale may be military, political, or both. The target may be military, in which case the bombing is usually classified as an act of war, or civilian, in which case it is usually considered terrorism.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The suicide bombing has also become a favourite with the Islamic militants in Bangladesh in recent days. Two senior assistant judges were killed and four others were injured on November 14 at Jhalakathi district town when a militant member of a JMB suicide squad hurled a bomb on the microbus carrying the judges. The suicide bombers also hit Chittagong and Gazipur courts killing 10 persons and injuring more than 70 people. The horrific bombings occurred on the court premises on Novermber 29, just two days after the Supreme Court judges received death threats from the JMB suicide bombers. The bomb attacks targeting the lawyers in the courts of Chittagong and Gazipur, killed three advocates, policemen, and litigants.

The suicide bombers of JMB are mostly young madrassa students from poor and lower middle-class families with rural backgrounds. They usually hold strong religious beliefs though some may have had difficult childhoods. The ritualistic communion of the Islamic extremist groups to which they belong, in addition to their strongly-held religious beliefs, helps motivate their decision to commit suicide for religion, the rewards of an afterlife may provide additional impetus. It has been learnt that the youths undertaking suicide bombings are simply following what they are taught to be their religious duty, and regard their own lives in this world as less important compared to the next eternal life. The radical schools of Islam teach that martyrdom is rewarded in the afterlife. So they are willing to sacrifice their own life in the hope of becoming a martyr, though the difference between suicide, which the Qur'an condemns, and martyrdom is not known to them.

The first modern suicide bombing involving explosives deliberately carried in 1981, perfected by the factions of the Lebanese Civil War and especially by the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. The tactic had spread to dozens of countries by 2005. Those hardest-hit were Lebanon during its civil war, Sri Lanka during its prolonged ethnic conflict, Israel and the Palestinian Territories since 1994, and Iraq since the invasion in 2003.

Lebanon, during its civil war, saw the first modern suicide bombing: the Islamic Dawa Party's car bombing of the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, in December 1981. Hezbollah's bombing of the US embassy in April 1983 and attack on United States Marine and French barracks in October 1983 brought suicide bombings international attention. The Tamil Tigers perfected the tactic of suicide bombing and inspired its use elsewhere. Their Black Tiger unit committed at least 168 suicide bombings since 1987, using more than 240 attackers. Their victims included former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and many prominent Sri Lankan leaders.

Various alternate terms have been used to frame the act of suicide bombing. The militant Islamist groups like Al Qaeda, lionize suicide bombers as shaheed or martyr. The Islamist use of shaheed for the bomber or martyrdom operation for the bombing emphasize the self-sacrificial aspects, while the term "homicide bombing" has been preferred by the George W. Bush administration and some right-leaning media outlets, as the bomber kills others.

According to Professor Charles A. Kimball, chairman of the Department of Religion at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, the vast majority of Muslims believe that the holy Qur'an forbid suicide. He said, "There is only one verse in the Qur'an that contains a phrase related to suicide, Verse 4:29 of the Qur'an reads: 'O you who believe! Do not consume your wealth in the wrong way-rather through trade mutually agreed to, and do not kill yourselves. Surely Allah is Merciful toward you,' but some commentators believe that the phrase 'do not kill yourselves' is better translated 'do not kill each other,' and some translations reflect that."

Mainstream Islamic groups such as the European Council for Fatwa and Research use the Quran'ic verse Al-Anam 6:151 ("And take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law") as further reason to prohibit suicide. In addition, the Hadith unambiguously forbid suicide.

Some mainstream Muslim clerics, while condemning the July 7 London bombings, have stated that under certain circumstances Islamic suicide bombings are justified. For example, Sayed Mohammed Musawi, head of the World Islamic League in London, insisted "there should be a clear distinction between the suicide bombing of those who are trying to defend themselves from occupiers, which is something different from those who kill civilians, which is a big crime." Furthermore, some Islamist militant organisations including Al Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad argue that martyrdom operations are justified according to Islamic law, despite Islam's strict prohibition of suicide and murder. However the vast majority of Muslims believe suicide attacks are generally forbidden by Islam.

Since four suicide bombings occured in London on July 7, there have been many scholastic refutations of suicide bombings from Sunni Muslims. Ihsanic Intelligence, a London-based Islamic think-tank, published their two-year study into suicide bombings in the name of Islam, titled 'The Hijacked Caravan', which concluded that, "The technique of suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to Sunni Islam. It is considered legally forbidden, constituting a reprehensible innovation in the Islamic tradition, morally an enormity of sin combining suicide and murder and theologically an act which has consequences of eternal damnation." The Oxford-based Malayist jurist, Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti, issued his landmark fatwa on suicide bombing and targeting innocent civilians, titled 'Defending the Transgressed, by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians', where he states suicide bombing in its most widespread form, is forbidden: 'If the attack involves a bomb placed on the body or placed so close to the bomber that when the bomber detonates it the bomber is certain to die, then the more correct position according to us is that it does constitute suicide.'

In his book entitled "The Road to Martyrs Square: A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber" the US writer and researcher Anne Marie Oliver has suggested the motives of the suicide bombers. These are religion, nationalism, grievance, fame, glory, and money. But money and religion are the main motivating factors for suicide bombers in Bangladesh. The poverty-stricken innocent youths become easy prey as recruits who are indoctrinated to believe that their sacrifice will be rewared by Allah.

Islamic scholars and thinkers who assembled in Dhaka at a regional seminar held in September, negated categorically all kinds of violence and intolerance in Islamic faith. The alem-ulema, who invariably look upon themselves as the successors of the Prophet (SA) for preaching the religion of Islam through exhortation and admonition, should take the leadership in upholding the real teachings of Islam. The media may also play a strong role in unmasking those who are misinterpretating Islam to execute their evil plans.

The writer is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.