richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion
304 T H E G O D D ELUSIO Nhimself. The answer is that men like bin Laden actuallybelieve what they say they believe. They believe in theliteral truth of the Koran. Why did nineteen well-educatedmiddle-class men trade their lives in this world for theprivilege of killing thousands of our neighbors? Becausethey believed that they would go straight to paradise fordoing so. It is rare to find the behavior of humans so fullyand satisfactorily explained. Why have we been soreluctant to accept this explanation? 134The respected journalist Muriel Gray, writing in the (Glasgow)Herald on 24 July 2005, made a similar point, in this case withreference to the London bombings.Everyone is being blamed, from the obvious villainousduo of George W Bush and Tony Blair, to the inaction ofMuslim 'communities'. But it has never been clearer thatthere is only one place to lay the blame and it has everbeen thus. The cause of all this misery, mayhem, violence,terror and ignorance is of course religion itself, and if itseems ludicrous to have to state such an obvious reality,the fact is that the government and the media are doing apretty good job of pretending that it isn't so.Our Western politicians avoid mentioning the R word (religion),and instead characterize their battle as a war against 'terror', asthough terror were a kind of spirit or force, with a will and a mindof its own. Or they characterize terrorists as motivated by pure'evil'. But they are not motivated by evil. However misguided wemay think them, they are motivated, like the Christian murderers ofabortion doctors, by what they perceive to be righteousness, faithfullypursuing what their religion tells them. They are not psychotic; theyare religious idealists who, by their own lights, are rational. Theyperceive their acts to be good, not because of some warped personalidiosyncrasy, and not because they have been possessed by Satan,but because they have been brought up, from the cradle, to havetotal and unquestioning faith. Sam Harris quotes a failedPalestinian suicide bomber who said that what drove him to kill
WHAT'S WRONG WITH R E L I G I O N ? 305Israelis was 'the love of martyrdom ... I didn't want revenge foranything. I just wanted to be a martyr.' On 19 November 2001 TheNew Yorker carried an interview by Nasra Hassan of another failedsuicide bomber, a polite young Palestinian aged twenty-sevenknown as 'S'. It is so poetically eloquent of the lure of paradise, aspreached by moderate religious leaders and teachers, that I think itis worth giving at some length:'What is the attraction of martyrdom?' I asked.'The power of the spirit pulls us upward, while thepower of material things pulls us downward,' he said.'Someone bent on martyrdom becomes immune to thematerial pull. Our planner asked, "What if the operationfails?" We told him, "In any case, we get to meet theProphet and his companions, inshallah."'We were floating, swimming, in the feeling that wewere about to enter eternity. We had no doubts. We madean oath on the Koran, in the presence of Allah - a pledgenot to waver. This jihad pledge is called bayt al-ridwan,after the garden in Paradise that is reserved for theprophets and the martyrs. I know that there are otherways to do jihad. But this one is sweet - the sweetest. Allmartyrdom operations, if done for Allah's sake, hurt lessthan a gnat's bite!'S showed me a video that documented the finalplanning for the operation. In the grainy footage, I sawhim and two other young men engaging in a ritualisticdialogue of questions and answers about the glory ofmartyrdom . . .The young men and the planner then knelt and placedtheir right hands on the Koran. The planner said: 'Are youready? Tomorrow, you will be in Paradise.' 135If I had been 'S', I'd have been tempted to say to the planner,'Well, in that case, why don't you put your neck where your mouthis? Why don't you do the suicide mission and take the fast trackto Paradise?' But what is so hard for us to understand is that - torepeat the point because it is so important - these people actually
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WHAT'S WRONG WITH R E L I G I O N ? 305
Israelis was 'the love of martyrdom ... I didn't want revenge for
anything. I just wanted to be a martyr.' On 19 November 2001 The
New Yorker carried an interview by Nasra Hassan of another failed
suicide bomber, a polite young Palestinian aged twenty-seven
known as 'S'. It is so poetically eloquent of the lure of paradise, as
preached by moderate religious leaders and teachers, that I think it
is worth giving at some length:
'What is the attraction of martyrdom?' I asked.
'The power of the spirit pulls us upward, while the
power of material things pulls us downward,' he said.
'Someone bent on martyrdom becomes immune to the
material pull. Our planner asked, "What if the operation
fails?" We told him, "In any case, we get to meet the
Prophet and his companions, inshallah."
'We were floating, swimming, in the feeling that we
were about to enter eternity. We had no doubts. We made
an oath on the Koran, in the presence of Allah - a pledge
not to waver. This jihad pledge is called bayt al-ridwan,
after the garden in Paradise that is reserved for the
prophets and the martyrs. I know that there are other
ways to do jihad. But this one is sweet - the sweetest. All
martyrdom operations, if done for Allah's sake, hurt less
than a gnat's bite!'
S showed me a video that documented the final
planning for the operation. In the grainy footage, I saw
him and two other young men engaging in a ritualistic
dialogue of questions and answers about the glory of
martyrdom . . .
The young men and the planner then knelt and placed
their right hands on the Koran. The planner said: 'Are you
ready? Tomorrow, you will be in Paradise.' 135
If I had been 'S', I'd have been tempted to say to the planner,
'Well, in that case, why don't you put your neck where your mouth
is? Why don't you do the suicide mission and take the fast track
to Paradise?' But what is so hard for us to understand is that - to
repeat the point because it is so important - these people actually
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