Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Islamic Jihad promises heaven to teen recruit

Hat tip to mal for pointing me to this Jerusalem Post piece about the rash of kiddie would-be suicide murderers. I've seen it posted in a couple of places before but hadn't really read it all through. Glad I did. It paints a fairly grim picture of the civil disorder in a place like Nablus. First we find the remarkable attempt of many of the Palestinian Arabs to blame Israeli agents for recruiting the kids to discredit the "resistance," then we find out that that's not really such a clear picture.

...Massoud said he called Islamic Jihad to demand an explanation. They apologized, lamely arguing that they mistook the gawky 10th grader for an 18-year old. They then promised not to do it again, said Massoud.

He and Raed believe the Islamic Jihad, or collaborators with Israel embedded within the group, fingered his younger son after it became clear that he chose life.

Khawireh's family called on the Palestinian Authority to launch an investigation to find out who is responsible for recruiting children.

"We discovered the plan only three hours before my brother was supposed to set out on the suicide mission," Raed said. "It's clear that he had been manipulated by suspicious elements and people who do not represent the Palestinian resistance."

Later in the piece:

A few steps from Abu Ahmed's restaurant, a gaggle of men gathered around a reporter in Nablus's central market trying to uphold Palestinian honor in the only way they could. One man swore that the Shin Bet had fabricated the stories of youths being conscripted, that "no Palestinian group would do such a thing." When asked how many of them believed that version, all the men, young and old, raised their hands.

In private, Palestinians react differently. "I appeal to Israel to allow us to establish peace. I appeal to them to act against Palestinians who sabotage peace," said Massoud Khawireh. That was before guests arrived. In public, Tamer's father stuck to the standard Palestinian line: Israel is to blame...

But what can Israel do? There simply is no authority ready to take control in the name of peace and order on the Palestinian side. One thing is certain, Israel must continue to target the leadership of the terror groups, to disrupt their weapons smuggling and operations...and Yasser Arafat must go. One way or another. There never will be a change in the situation with him anywhere near the reigns of power. There doesn't seem to be any way off the tracks short of a trip to an absolutely crisis-level breaking point.

This article also points to the near impossibility of discerning what the hell is going on in Palestinian Arab society - a polity in complete turmoil. You cannot have any useful change in a situation where basic personal safety is threatened by speaking one's mind, nor can we even know what will come out of that mind when it does speak.

Update: In timely fashion comes this brief article at the Middle East Forum: If Hamas Inherits the Palestinian Authority: A briefing by Shmuel Bar. It paints about the same picture as above: Post-Arafat (or even how we get to a post-Arafat era) there are many questions, and no clear answers at this juncture.

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The True Heaven of an Islamic Martyr

Islam demands a powerful faith; the kind of faith that knows no boundaries and carry’s convictions leading to either courageous, or outrageous actions, and every action has its consequences, whether in deed or thought. Those that die in battle for Allah are guaranteed an eternity in paradise, and undying faith carries no limit on what is expected. Mahomet felt that all previous prophets had failed in bringing God’s will to bear upon all the people of the world, and that God had handed him the sword as a last resort. The consequences soon followed.
A martyr straps a belt of explosives under his coat, walks into a crowd of people, and blows himself and everyone else to pieces. After a while the martyr awakens in a strange place, and is a bit confused as he gains his orientation. As the mist clears, his attention is slowly drawn to what looks like a large and tall unknown edifice. Suddenly, there in all its glory stands a magnificent castle, nestled in a green meadow, colorful banners flutter in the gentle breeze from its parapets. As he draws nearer, the castle takes on exquisite detail and structure. It glows with a luster from the alabaster walls and marble columns, inside hang tapestries rich in pattern and color. The furniture is of ornately carved oak, and mahogany, intricately gilded in gold and silver. He finds himself clothed in the finest silk and velvet embedded with precious jewels. Then he notices a handsome young man enter the room beckoning him to follow. The servant leads him to another large room extravagantly furnished with numerous beautiful young women engaged in various activities. As he enters, they turn to him and smile.
The martyr has received all that was promised–and more. And so he revels in his paradise . . . for a day? A year? A thousand years? Although he has all his desires, a time comes when he wonders what is beyond the castle. Then one day while venturing out into the warm sunshine, an awareness of the same mist he emerged from when discovering the castle draws his attention. Slowly walking forward he enters the mist until completely enveloped, and then, becoming alarmed, backs out. A slight feeling of disappointment takes hold, and he wonders what is beyond the fog. As the young martyr turns and approaches the castle, it no longer seems as lustrous, nor as detailed in splendor as the day of his arrival. Entering the main chamber reveals faded tapestries no longer rich in color, now turning drab, the same with the gilding, and inlaid jewels. His beautiful young women have aged, and show little interest in him. All around, the once magnificent castle takes on a dreary, shabby pallor, and begins to slowly crack and crumble. Panic grips him as he flees from the ruin into the eerie mist.
As the fog clears, he finds himself strangely detached and outside an open marketplace filled with people. Is that him walking into the crowd? Oh no, a sudden explosion devastates the place as smoke, fire, and body parts fly away; he too is lost from sight. Ghost-like figures rise into the air with ghastly white faces grimaced in torment. Slowly, one by one, they begin turning, and with no show of any emotion gather about him. He screams, but it’s too late, what’s done is done.


Part 2–How it Works

What went wrong? What happened to his wonderful life? Nothing really, he had created an illusion based on his expectations, and when his illusion failed, the time had come for him to face a higher truth. These truths, often referred to as Spiritual laws, have been around since the beginning of time. One might say that the entire order of the Cosmos exists on these principles.
The Spiritual heavens, or celestial spheres, often called the astral plane, cover a vast system of worlds remarkably structured like our solar system. Common to all the spheres are levels of spiritual depth with the denser levels being the lowest and then becoming more rarified as the levels ascend. Spiritual entities, or souls, are very special beings that have come to inhabit these abodes after eons of time through stages of evolutionary development. Less advanced souls occupy the lower levels, and take advantage of the lessons that guide their knowledge of work done in the higher dimensions. Once a certain level of perfection is reached, other options become available.
While there is one spiritual system, one could say that there are many heavens. For instance, devout Christians are drawn to a very large area where they all share common beliefs. There may even be a heaven within a heaven, such as a place where all Protestants congregate, or Catholics. The Moslem faith also draws souls that think and believe according to the Koran, and divisions in their heaven beckon moderates or radicals, Shiite, Sunni, or Sufi. The Jewish religion also holds various creeds, and belief systems within their faith. These religions are mentioned because they are large groups, but religion is no requirement for there to be an after life, although those that emphatically deny it fulfill their own expectations. They often slumber through their spiritual lives until they are drawn back to their new physical counterparts. It’s like a train passenger that sleeps through all the depot stops on a long journey. Nonetheless, all souls generally end up where they deserve to be, although in rare cases souls that refuse to accept their physical death linger in familiar places in the astral shadows of the Earth plane.
There comes a time for most souls when conditions are ideal, when certain forces move into alignment and the soul is called back to physical life in the Earth sphere. For some, it’s an opportunity to enjoy the good that has accrued to them; for others, to carry on and experiment with the work they do in the astral planes. For those souls holding debts, it is as a bell tolling; bringing them back to atone for the ill they have begot in another age–all in harmony with the laws governing the divine plan.
Now we return to our young martyr. Before the explosion he already had his vision of paradise formulated in his mind. In the spiritual plane Mind is the reality. It is the builder, it is what everything is made of. These building blocks are called Thought Forms. Thought Forms seem quite solid, but can assume any form or shape that the imagination desires. If you want to build a place for yourself, then the structure can be built of any material, whether of wood, metal, or stone, just will it to happen. But there is one condition that is usually self-managed. It takes psychic energy to build, and it takes a small amount of psychic energy to maintain, otherwise it slowly dissipates away. The young martyr kept his castle intact through his own exuberance, and happiness. He never doubted that he could want anything more; thus his castle would have endured indefinitely. Things changed once those thoughts turned away from paradise; his disappointment virtually brought down the castle. In the long-run Thought Forms don’t last forever, and when accounts need to be balanced, it was as if the castle had never existed. Spiritual law is ineluctable. No soul can deprive another soul of its life. The martyr came out of the mist to witness his own act, and now must take responsibility. Yet, by those same laws no soul is doomed to suffer forever; there is always a way to balance the difference between right and wrong. In one way or another, the young martyr will come to understand, and in due time atone for his act. Many things are taken into consideration. Was he taken as a youth and brainwashed into believing what he did was right and good? Woe to the trainers, who, by the way, don’t seem too anxious to blow themselves up. They also will stand to account, and undoubtedly become victims of their own hate. And how does that work?

Part 3–The Realm Beyond Redemption

The physical and the spiritual worlds are mutually based on polarities. In the physical world it is in the form of charges, such as the atom; protons are positive and electrons negative; in chemistry it relates to the pure and the base, as with gold and lead. Chinese philosophy is based on the Tau: Yin and Yang. In aesthetics we have the beautiful and the ugly. And of course the universal struggle between good and evil applies specifically to human behavior, and determines the state of the soul.
Within the spiritual worlds there is a place for souls holding debts of differing gravity waiting for the call to return to Earth, much of that is dependent on, well, attitude. Feelings of remorse and guilt usually speed up the return to physical life. The higher levels of this other world indicate less involvement in evil activity, as opposed to the worst at the dense lower level. Our young martyr probably falls somewhere in-between, meaning that his act was serious, but because others bear some responsibility for this deed, he is not alone. In due time he will be drawn to rebirth, pay his debt, and return to the path of progress that all souls strive to maintain.
The lowest levels hold the worst of the worst. Torturing and killing out of hatred carries such force that it actually distorts the visage of the soul into monstrous shapes. Other demented souls torture and scourge the new arrival for interminable lengths of time because there is no death to end the pain and suffering. Then, out of sheer wrath the sufferer becomes the vicious instrument of torture, and the performance is repeated over and over. This lowest realm is ugly, vile, and filthy, every form of terror and cruelty becomes an eternity of equal suffering, for little saving light enters this dark and frigid place, although fires illumine the grotesque horror. Repentance is possible still, but largely ignored by those that revel in the carnage; hence, evil lives on. Those that through their own sheer hatred send out young and innocent suicide bombers to do their dirty work can be found here in growing numbers, along with those that torture, disfigure and kill. Lastly: saying they did it in the name of God is the worst crime of all. Let it be known.

John

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