Culture of Death
Another from Memri. Hassan Haydar in London’s Al-Hayat examines the Iranian “Culture of Death, the exaltation of martyrdom by Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Gaza. He notes that while Hezbollah TV and other outlets encourage their people to die stupidly, they also praise American and Israeli anti-war groups and military parents who want their soldiers to live:
According to a Reuters news report from Monday, a little Lebanese girl who appeared on a… children’s show on Al-Manar – Hezbollah’s TV channel – said that she had often prayed for her father to be martyred in battle with Israel, and that she was very proud that he was killed in the war last July, and that she was ‘very happy for him,’ because she felt that God had heard her prayers.
The mother of the Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up in Eilat three days ago also told Agence France-Presse that she was happy her son was martyred. She revealed that she had said goodbye [to him] before he left for his mission and had wished him success, and that she was happy that ‘God had heard her prayers.’
These two examples are no different from the Iranian ‘human waves,’ in which the victims wore keys to Paradise around their necks as they marched through Iraqi minefields. They are also no different from the majority of operations that have been carried out by the Lebanese and Palestinian Islamic resistance movements over the last two decades.”
… But in stark contrast, the media apparatuses of the same Iran-affiliated movements express admiration for American anti-war groups and for mothers of American soldiers demanding the return of their children, just as they emphasized last summer’s protests by Israeli mothers who opposed the Israeli army’s involvement in a ground war in Lebanon, praising the influence of such actions on society as a whole and on the Israeli decision-making process.
Haydar has some idiotic idea that Hezbollah’s animosity toward Israel is justified. But then he concludes, insightfully:
We might ask: How will this child, who was raised to exalt and glamorize death, be able to conform to the rules of a work place, or comply with public law, or harmonize with a civil society later in life?
How will such a child be able to appreciate the value of a tree, a house, a field, a road, a bridge, a public square, or any of the normal things… that surrounding him?
What Lebanon went through last summer and what is currently taking place in the heart of Beirut and in its alleys – are these not examples of what a child nurtured on the culture of death is capable of doing?
The whole thing here.
Topics: Iran, Islam, lebanon, middle east
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:00 am Comments (3) on Wednesday, February 7, 2007
3 Responses to “Culture of Death”
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February 7th, 2007 at 10:19 am
The significance of this [lies] in distorting the concept of struggle itself, denying people the right to make rational and mature choices, and demeaning everything other than martyrdom, including political and social efforts aimed at improving the conditions of these communities and their members’ living standards.
Stating the obvious here, but it’s going to take generations for these people to rid themselves of the poison that’s been fed to them.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Bill’s Nibbles– 2007.02.07
Some Bill’s Bites posts, some things I excerpted and linked but I’m sending you to the original post. I may rearrange the order of the links within this post as I add new things that I think belong above the
February 7th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Culture of Death
Culture of DeathJules Crittenden Another from Memri. Hassan Haydar in London’s Al-Hayat examines the Iranian “Culture of Death, the exaltation of martyrdom by Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Gaza. He notes that while Hezbollah TV and other outlets e…