True Roman Catholic Martyrdom Compared To The False Martyrdom Of Muslims

TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista
Last Communion of St Lucy

With arms crossed, St Lucy kneels before a priest to receive the last communion. Her half closed eyes and the elegiac expression on her face hint at her later fate. The priests and secular dignitaries who surround her wear magnificent robes, whose beautifully rendered material and brilliant colours are of particular intensity. The scene takes place in front of an imposing palace, upon whose balustrade Tiepolo has again placed spectators. While the bloody knife and the platter with the gouged-out eyes in the foreground are a drastic reminder of the impending martyrdom, the heads of angels which hover over the saint announce her entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. Web Gallery of Art




Now for the false martyrdom of a Muslim woman:




Rheim Saleh al-Riyashi received a martyr's burial in Gaza City. Feigning a medical condition, the 22-year-old Palestinian mother of two had made her way to the front of a line of workers at the Erez Crossing between Israel and Gaza. Detonating a bomb that was strapped to her body, she killed four Israelis; ten others, including Palestinians, were also injured.

A joint leaflet signed by HAMAS and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement, immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Riyashi belonged to the Brigades of Izel Dein Al Qassam, the armed wing of HAMAS. Fatah and Islamic Jihad have used women suicide bombers before, but HAMAS had been reluctant to do so. None of Islamic Jihad's female suicide bombers had been married or mothers.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, HAMAS' spiritual leader, told reporters that sending a woman on such a mission was one of HAMAS' tactics. "Israeli security measures at checkpoints and roadblocks make it difficult for men to reach soldiers and settlers. HAMAS saw that a woman could reach them and carry out a successful attack," said Yassin.

Apparently a place in Paradise was sufficient inducement for Riyashi to kill herself and several others; leaving a husband, two children and a lover behind. In a videotape sent to news agencies, Riyashi wore a black long-sleeve dress and black head scarf, with a green strip across her forehead proclaiming, "There is no God but Allah." At right she is shown with her daughter Duha, who is clutching a rocket grenade.

Cradling an AK-47 assault rifle, she smiled as she read from a paper, explaining that the suicide bombing attack was intended to, "the attack was meant to turn her body into "deadly shrapnel". "The fire of revenge will never be extinguished. It will remain burning, day after day, until those villain enemies are burnt and leave our land. It was a dream for me to carry out this operation."

"I will carry out this joint attack with our brothers from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in revenge against the enemies of humanity who kill and destroy in Rafah, in Nablus and in all the Palestinian territories."

And she said in clear, clipped tones, her most heartfelt wish to "knock on heaven's doors with the skulls of Zionists." She also spoke of her devotion to her two children, ages 3 and 18 months. "Only God knows how much I loved them," she said unwaveringly.

Riyashi's 24-year-old husband, Zeyad Awad, a HAMAS activist, said he had mixed feelings of happiness and sorrow, adding, "I'm happy because she is a shahida (a martyr) and I'm sad because I've lost my wife and my two children are motherless."

These video tapes (and posters) are almost always made before a suicide bombing. They serve a number of purposes. Not only do they serve to help glorify the terrorist organization among the Palestinian population and aid in recruiting, but having committed, on tape, to going ahead with martyrdom the potential shahid/shahida is less likely to back out.

More Details of the Incident

The bombing took place in a terminal where Palestinian laborers from the Gaza Strip pass through to their jobs in Israel.

Witnesses said the young woman feigned a limp as she approached an Israeli metal detector, and told its operator that a metal plate in her leg left by surgery would likely raise an alarm.

She took a few steps, and then set off a very, very large explosive device Moments before, a Palestinian woman labourer offered the limping al-Riyashi a helping hand. Al-Riyashi looked at her, thanked her and told her to back off.

An Israeli paramedic, Boris Shor, said: "The terminal was totally destroyed. Everything was shattered, glass was everywhere, body parts were spread out. It was a very difficult sight.

Both Israeli and US officials expressed dismay that militant groups would select a target that put livelihoods as well as lives at risk."This is a terminal that we opened up to allow ordinary Palestinians to bring bread to their tables, and what do the militant groups do? They bring in a suicide bomber," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "This is a strategy to bring chaos, to make normal life for the Palestinians impossible."

IDF sources said that the investigation has already revealed that Al-Riyashi's husband, an activist in the HAMAS organization, not only knew about his wife's plans in advance, but even encouraged her to carry out the homicide attack. And that the person who recruited Rheim to carry out the homicide attack and equipped her with the explosive belt was none other than the lover with whom she cheated on her husband. The Sunday Times (London) reported that the husband drove his wife to Erez Crossing.

Riyashi's body was returned by Israel to the Palestinian side, and was picked up by a Palestinian ambulance. The next morning a procession of relatives, HAMAS members and militants brought a coffin to Shiffa Hospital, placed Riyashi into it and carried her to Gaza City's main mosque for final prayers before taking her for burial.

An Honor Killing?

Sources said Riyashi was forced into such a terrible act because she had brought shame on her family by cheating on her husband. So-called honor killings are common among the more conservative elements of Arab societies. In the event of rape, adultery, or other serious indiscretion, the woman's male relatives will kill her to restore the family honor. Some jails in Jordan are full of women, who having committed no crime, hiding from the probability of being killed for a slight, real or imagined, to the family honor.

In the present situation becoming a suicide bomber allows family honor to be restored and supplies recruits for politically and psychologically effective actions.

Zeyad Awad, 27, her husband, is a HAMAS member who is said to have encouraged her in the mission. There were reports of them arguing bitterly in the weeks before Jan 14, when she was dispatched to the Erez checkpoint.

A Shahida's Background

Rheim was the daughter of an established middle-class merchant family in Gaza. Her father is the owner of a large automobile battery factory selling mainly to Israel. She was married to Zeyad ,age 24, and the mother of a daughter, Duha, not yet three, and a son, Mohammad, 18 months.

A successful student and activist in HAMAS women’s groups, al-Riyashi said: "It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists." Al-Riyashi, who was wearing fatigues and a HAMAS sash in the video, left behind a daughter aged 18 months and a son aged three. "God gave me two children and I loved them so much. Only God knew how much I loved them," she said in the video, asking that her children study in religious schools. She added that she had dreamed since she was 13 of "becoming a martyr" and dying for her people.

Controversy Over Suicide Bombings

In the past, HAMAS leaders have said women's roles should be to raise children and educate them to fight against Israel. However,in justifying his group's first use of a female bomber, HAMAS spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said holy war "is an obligation of all Muslims, men and women. As long as there is occupation, it is inevitable that there will be ongoing resistance, but here you will notice that for the first time the units implemented the operation using a woman fighter. And this is a new challenge and a new development in the resistance."

Some have speculated HAMAS was forced to use a woman, because Israeli security focused on young men as potential bombers.

Members of her family were said to have disagreed vehemently with her actions and clashed with her husband afterwards. One claimed, "it was not right in Islam for a woman to become a suicide bomber."

"I don't support what she did," Yousef Awad, 31, her brother-in-law, was quoted as saying. "It's not accepted for a woman to do that. This doesn't exist in our traditions. We are quite a peaceful family, and we are against anything that opposes peace."

But the HAMAS newspaper Al Resalah said she acted nobly and had kissed her children before leaving them, "She was giving them power as a fighter and a martyr which is higher than the quality of maternity," it said.

Another HAMAS spokesman defended sending a mother of two on a suicide bombing mission, saying that martyrdom was a higher calling than motherhood.

"What Rheim al-Riyashi did was not a shame for Palestinians, it was a great honor for every man and woman fighting the Zionist occupation," said Ahmed, a 23-year-old Palestinian wearing a black mask and waving a large green HAMAS flag.

Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, an expert in Islamic law, said that from a religious point of view suicide bombings are considered heroic deeds and one of the greatest forms of Jihad (holy war).

Um Husam, a 32-year-old Palestinian mother of four, slammed Rheim al-Riyashi's deed, saying, "Islam does not order us to die and leave our children. Allah doesn't take us to paradise if we kill ourselves and leave our children without anyone to take care of them."

Hanan Ashrawi, a well-known Palestinian spokesman, had this to say, "The anger among ordinary Palestinians at the death of a mother and a second son (referring to another suicide bombing, a second in one family) could help turn public opinion against the bombings," Ashrawi added that "the attacks brought the question closer to home. Some people don't want to see their children do these things."

Arab society promotes solidarity and a consensus rather than freedom of speech; a few brave individuals have courageously spoken up against utilizing children and women in genocide attacks. They run the risk of being branded collaborators."

Taken from Al-Ghoul.com