What Terrorists Say

In the course of a normal day for me I will read a variety of material. I’ve often been heard to say, “There are simply not enough hours in the day for reading!”

This morning I was reading through a copy of the Jerusalem Post that a friend left for me at the church office. One article in particular caught my attention. It is entitled, “Out of the Mouth of Bombers.” The author is Ruthie Blum, and she’s writing about Aaron Klein. Klein is the Jerusalem bureau chief for the right-wing news web site, WorldNetDaily.com, and a columnist for the equally conservative Jewish Press. He is the author of the best-selling book, Schmoozing with Terrorists.

A few weeks back I picked up a book written by Michael Yon, a former Green Beret. Yon has become a self-made journalist, traveling at his own expense to Iraq, Afghanistan and any other hot spot to provide as unbiased a view of the conflict as possible. I have been receiving Yon’s periodic e-mails from Iraq since early last year. He calls it like he sees it and does not hesitate to criticize even our own military when it demonstrates inept leadership, foolish battle plans, or bullheadedness when dealing with Iraqi locals. His book, Moment of Truth in Iraq, came out earlier this year and is a terrific look behind the scenes of all that has been happening in that Middle Eastern country. The picture on the cover is of an American Army Ranger holding a little girl named Farah. This precious child heard the American soldiers drive up, so she ran out to greet them knowing they would be passing out candy. A couple of dozen children were gathered around a Stryker (A Stryker is one in a family of eight-wheeled all-wheel-drive armored combat vehicles). At that moment a terrorist driving a bomb-laden car rammed into the Stryker. Out of the flames and smoke emerged a woman carrying a bloodied and severely injured Farah. Major Mark Bieger scooped little Farah into his arms and rushed her to the Army medics. At moments he would stop and hug the child, whispering to her. Perhaps you’ve seen the picture. Later, while Farah was being treated at the hospital, she died.

Shortly after Farah’s death, the picture made the rounds in Iraq and the effect has been devastating to the al Qaeda terrorists. Iraqi’s are fed up with the terrorists and have turned against them, while at the same time they have come to the realization that we are in their country to help them.

We Americans have a difficult time understanding why these terrorists can be so vicious. We are fed a line of rubbish about these people being so poor that they have nothing, thus they are driven to acts of violence. Both Klein and Yon say this simply is not so. Klein believes it is necessary, “to educate people on what the war on terrorism is really about,” by giving a genuine glimpse into the psyche of suicide bombers and their recruiters.

Ruthie Blum asks Klein, “What makes terrorists tick?”

“That’s a good question,” Klein says. “A lot of people think that terrorism is about pieces of territory. Others think that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the whole alphabet of Palestinian terrorists simply want to destroy Israel or that al Qaeda wants America out of the Middle East. But one thing that has really been driven home to me in all my talks with terrorists – which is the thesis of all my work – is that they are looking to serve Allah by spreading Islam around the world. That’s what makes them tick.”

Blum then asked, “It is often said of terrorists that desperation and poverty – sometimes mental illness – is at the root of their actions. Is there truth to that?”
Klein responded, “It’s true that if you watch CNN or read The New York Times, you would get that impression. Because whenever there’s a suicide bombing in Israel, right away they present human interest stories about how the bomber is poor and living under Israeli occupation. And this is in spite of the fact that in the history of modern civilization, there’s no other instance of people under occupation blowing themselves up.

“But, about a year and a half ago, I met with a 22-year-old Palestinian who had been recruited to become a suicide bomber for Islamic Jihad and his recruiter in Jenin, and I specifically asked them whether they were carrying out their operations because of poverty and desperation. Their response was to get offended and to call it Zionist propaganda. They explained that suicide is forbidden in Islam, and that blowing oneself up in the midst of innocent men, women and children does not constitute suicide, but rather jihad for Allah – that therefore it is not only allowed, but it is the creed.”

Next week I will address this topic further. My purpose in writing about these Islamic terrorists is to allow you to see how we are being misled by the media in understanding what is really at the root cause of their behavior.

As Aaron Klein says, “It’s necessary to educate people.”

Consider yourself being educated.