Islam, Suicide Bombers and the Hope for Peace

Mere Rhetoric writes a moving personal tribute to the Israeli officer, Uri Binamo, recently killed at a checkpoint by a suicide bomber en route to a hanukkah party. He brings home the tangible richness of the life that was cruelly taken. And he describes why Israeli society does not retaliate fiercely against the Palestinians or protect itself with more extreme measures.

This last point is not trivial. In spite of everything, the Palestinians are at the mercy of Israel. Fortunately Israel treats them with kid gloves. I'm reading 'The Wahhabi Myth' by Haneef James Oliver at the moment. It's an explanation of the Salafist system of beliefs and an attempt to distance Saudi Wahabism from Bin Laden's sect.

Arguing that Wahhabism prohibits terrorist attacks against non-Muslims, he cites Muhammad Ibn Sallih Al-Uthaymeen, who exhorted muslims:

...Likewise I invite you to have respect for those people who have the right that they should be respected, from those between you and whom there is an agreement. For the land in which you are living is such that there is an agreement between you and them. If this were not the case, they would have killed you or expelled you. So preserve this agreement, and do not prove treacherous to it, since treachery is a sign of the Hypocrites, and it is not from the way of the Believers.

From a strictly Salafist perspective then, Palestinian suicide bombers are in breach of an implicit agreement with Israeli society and contravene the teachings of the Prophet of Islam.

Theory of course is one thing ; there are many streams within Islam that don't subscribe to this idea. Moreover, Saudis themselves enthusiastically support Palestinian jihadi groups. But in light of the ongoing debate in Western circles about whether accomodation with Islam is ultimately possible, I think its important to note that at least some elements of the intellectual infrastructure necessary for mutual co-existence exist.