opinion

I recently lived in Kuala Lumpur for four months. During that time I was surprised to learn that so many Malaysians apparently sympathise with suicide bombers.

Last week a writer for the American magazine, The New Yorker , gave us an astonishing report on his nearly 250 interviews with the 'human bombs', that is, suicide bombers, living in the Palestinian territories.

Nasra Hassan, a Pakistani, was as perplexed as the rest of world about why young men would volunteer to commit suicide while causing as much death, destruction, and terror as possible. He wanted to understand what the attraction of 'martyrdom' is and why young men would volunteer to blow themselves up in the name of Islam.

The Islamic concept of martyrdom is illusive to Westerners. The suggestion that blowing up yourself and others opens a 'window' to the Prophet, to paradise, and to countless virgins strikes Westerners as a bit overstated. To kill others in such an inhuman way "in a pizzeria, in a discotheque, on a bus, in a busy market" sounds extremely cruel, especially for the purpose of taking the 'human bomb' to paradise.

Moreover, Hassan mentions that as a condition of his interviews with these individuals - some whose bombs had failed to detonate, others who presumably were later sent to death, or will be in the future - he could not mention the fact that Islam prohibits suicide.

The writer of this report also tells us that between 1993 and October this year, 37 human bombs exploded in Israel, killing 215 Israelis and injuring 1,800 others. Twenty-four of these acts were 'claimed' by Hamas, and the other 13 by the Islamic Jihad. To 'claim' these acts in this case means to take a videotape of the young martyr just before his mission to his parents along with US$3,000 to US$5,000 in cash. This is not to suggest that the money was the motivation for the deeds.

Secret mission

These 'volunteers' are part of an organisational structure of recruiters and trainers who prepare the bombers for their assignments. The fact that every aspect of the training of these individuals for their missions is kept secret, "they cannot discuss any aspect of their training or missions with their suicidal partners, friends, family and so on" suggests that the secrecy is not only to guard against being discovered by Israeli authorities, but also, to protect them from detection by family and community members who might not approve, since suicide is said to be forbidden by Islam.

It should be noted that this whole technique of suicide bombings was developed in 1993 by a man called the 'engineer', Yahya Ayyash. What is remarkable about this practice of brutally destroying others is that it is justified in various writings that have been widely distributed across the Muslim world.

While in Malaysia, I attended a meeting of an organisation called the "International Movement for a Just World". It is printed and circulated under its own letterhead in defence of suicide bombings by Eyad Sarraj, a Palestinian psychiatrist. The writer freely admits that this 'horrific' way of killing Israelis is quite unbelievable, for "who on earth in their right mind would understand terror and the killing of innocent people?"

He proceeds to recount the various indignities, arrests, brutal treatment, slights, and insults that the Palestinians have suffered up to 1997. It is since then, he tells us, that Palestinians "have turned into suicide killers".

What is missing from his account is the fact that the method of suicide bombing was deliberately fashioned by an Islamic extremist as a weapon of terror, that these suicide bombers are recruited and trained by various organisations, that the basic justification is tied to the Islamic belief in martyrdom, and that the bombings are not random acts but deliberately chosen incidents designed to disrupt the ongoing peace process in the Middle East. He claims that the Palestinians have tried everything and "what else can we try?".

Strategic non-violent action

For several decades, American and other researchers have been studying the effective use of non-violent techniques to achieve strategic goals in major social conflicts. Recent examples of the effective use of non-violent action conclude Solidarity in Poland, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and the end of communist rule in East Germany in 1989. But even before those events my former colleague, Gene Sharp, published a major work on non-violent struggle in which he listed 198 examples of non-violent action.

These techniques can be used in a variety of situations in which highly committed parties to a conflict hold strong, non-compromising views. A great many of these techniques could be effectively used by the Palestinians in their struggles, but it does require strategic thinking to identify where effective pressure can be applied in opposition to oppressive forces.

A not insignificant advantage of non-violent confrontation is that it prolongs the encounter while drawing the attention of the press, indeed, the whole world to the plight of a beleaguered and non-violent minority.

For example, a 10 or 20-day sit-in would draw enormous attention by the media, as would a 60-day hunger strike that was very carefully organised with highly visible actors and deliberately chosen hot-spot issues. Perhaps one or two demonstrators would be injured or even killed, but for those who are willing to die for a cause, that is a very small price to pay when the whole world is watching and seeing the oppressive use of violence against a non-violent resister.

The method of using suicidal 'human bombs' is not only a complete failure in bringing us closer to peace, but repugnant to the world's conscience. If Islam is the religion of peace, then is it not time to start using effective non-violent strategies of confrontation? Non-violent actions can be undertaken with great effect, and when the world sees a group of non-violent actors brutalised by a violent opposition, world opinion will shift dramatically to the cause of those advocating non-violent action.

DR TOBY E HUFF is chancellor professor of department of sociology and anthropology, University of Massachusetts. He was in Malaysia from July to October to do a research on the Multimedia Super Corridor and has been a student of Islam for several decades.