Editorial note: In the coming months there will be increased entrance into the IB space for the public readership. Based on a lack of quality coverage and commentary on specific issues which are of vital consideration for Americans, you will see my movement in small manner from private to public corridor on this page. Today, a discussion on suicide bombings.
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The eighteenth century empiricist George Berkeley said, "Esse est percipi" which means "to be is to be perceived". His argument that our knowlege of our world and its surroundings is that which comes through our senses is a good one. Simple enough. We receive "sense data" from which we make an analysis and then form a conclusion. And what a hell of a sensory overload I put myself through a couple weeks ago as I engaged a Jihad-immersion program on the internet.
Long before we noted the first female suicide bomber, I had interesting and ongoing dialogue with a strident Jihad advocate. While he continued to harbor complete justification for blowing up total strangers without so much as a "Howdy doody", I chose instead to quietly pursue predictive analysis. My prediction on this particular issue was based on a belief that erroneous activity by the most dominant of the human species, the male, has a ripple effect on the more vulnerable of the species, women and children. My subsequent prediction to him was that women would soon become suicide bombers and when the social family net was thus breached, children would follow. Welcome, to the year 2009.
The internet has available sense data regarding both women and children as single-mission combatants. It is a foregone conclusion there is only one mission because once your DNA is splattered on the nearest tree, you cease to be of use for "the cause". Please note my muted use of "the cause" to describe what is happening in Muslim-majority nations today. Individuals blowing themselves and small child victims onto the roofs of homes in Iraq and elsewhere have most likely never digested simple concepts such as "multi-lateral treaty", "memorandum of agreement" or for that matter "due process". Their "cause" moves via indoctrination, and what is a vile bastardization of political remedy.
Moving through a children's book on Jihad I looked for what I call "signal and symbol" sense data as the first two levels of reading which I engage when doing research. Clever stuff. There is a lot the average person won't catch without ample background in Islamic studies. But the template within a children's book, echoed the word usage and thought process of an adult single-mission combatant.
Take a moment now and place yourself in the role of the parent. Taking little Johnny by the hand you enter the children's section of a local bookstore. Shall you purchase a book of children's fables? Maybe a story with pop-ups of dragons and snakes? Hmmm. No, here is what you are looking for and it is certainly a find! You can teach little Johnny the joys of martyrdom. And if you can't find a book on jihad for the kiddies via Amazon or your local library, some nice person on a message board will help you out. Did I mention, discreet cough, the recruitment book for children was written by a woman? So how long is it before mama straps on the magnificent obsession and has an "Aha" moment. Look for it. We will see an operational family unit in the future. And yes, psychologically, that will be one helluva show.
I used to admire men who could shed a tear in public. No more. Recently I plowed my way through a journalistic veil of tears with a man crying.... because he admires women who blow themselves up for, again, "the cause". While the movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" explored the world of interracial marriage, I cringe to think of this man cast in a new version.
"Hi, Mom! Guess who's coming to dinner? It is Anwar. Yes, yes! He wants me to blow myself up!"
Arab historian and theorist Ibn Khaldun believed that every civilization contained the necessary seeds for its own destruction. Ideological father of the Iranian Revolution Ali Shari'ati voiced his understanding that each revolution had two aspects: blood and the message. But what a bloody message it is, which is moving across the world today calling out civilians to perform single-mission targeting of other civilians.
When the one who nurtures and the one who needs nurture receive sense data which compel them to become single-mission combatants, the seeds for the implosion of a civilization are in the ground. I have addressed these issues, within the Islamic community in America.
Child Suicide bombers
Tammy Swofford
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