Interview With A Suicide Bomber

From the BBC

Published on July 19, 2004 By CS Guy In Current Events

The BBC has an interview with a suicide bomber who was caught by Israeli forces before he was able to detonate his bomb. This 15-year-old offers some frightening insight into the mindset of such a person.

JR: Were you scared of dying?
Hussam: No. I'm not afraid of death.
JR: Why not?
Hussam: Nobody is going to live forever. We're all going to die.
JR: But you were only 15 years old at the time.
Hussam: I wanted to be relieved of school.

So it seems death is better than school. Perhaps if he were better educated he would have a different view about blowing himself and others into smithereens. There is some light, however.

JR: Are you sad that you didn't manage to blow yourself up and kill many Israelis?
Hussam: I feel normal. But I thank God that the operation didn't go through.
JR: You thank God that you didn't die - why?
Hussam: It's just the way it is. God doesn't want me to die.

But, once again, it seems that school was a deciding factor in becoming a bomber.

JR: Some teenagers want to be footballers, others want to be singers. You wanted to be a suicide bomber. Why?
Hussam: It's not suicide - it's martyrdom.
I would become a martyr and go to my God. It's better than being a singer or a footballer. It's better than everything.
JR: What was the main reason for you deciding to become a suicide bomber? The one reason in particular.
Hussam: The reason was because my friend was killed.
The second reason I did it is because I didn't want to go to school.
My parents forced me to go to school and I didn't feel like going.

This kid does not seem like a monster to me. He just seems confused. He wants to be with his family, who, he says, would not have allowed him to do this deed if they had known of his intent. He says he wants to go home and work in his father’s shop. He says he would not do this again, because prison is bad.

But the one disturbing thing about this interview is that he shows absolutely no remorse about the lives he had planned on taking. Nor about the maiming his bomb would surely cause. It seems his only regret is that he was caught. And for this he expects to spend two to three years in jail.

Comments

Manopeace

on Jul 19, 2004

Livining in Jerusalem, all I can say is THANK GOD HE WAS CAUGHT before he was able to kill and maim innocent civilians. This is a nightmare we have to cope with daily. Let us hope and pray this will all be history.

CS Guy

on Jul 19, 2004

Let us hope and pray this will all be history.

This boy says he thinks peace will come, and that if he could go back he would not try to do this again. Like I said before, he just seems to be very confused.

Gideon MacLeish

on Jul 19, 2004

Unfortunately, he can't go back...what's done is done.

I agree, this is not a monster, but a very mixed up kid. That being said, his lack of remorse makes him a potential danger. I hope that somehow, someway, he comes to see peace as a better way.

CS Guy

on Jul 19, 2004

That being said, his lack of remorse makes him a potential danger.

I wonder of two to three years in prison is appropriate for a wannabe suicide bomber.

grindlestone

on Jul 20, 2004

At fifteen years of age it's debatable whether he can seriously held responsible for his actions. If you want to find monsters look the the desperate and confused adults that propmted his action.

Contast

on Jul 20, 2004

How different are his responses to a seventeen year old kid in the US, coming out of high school and deciding to join the marines ?

Prediction: Minor cultural differences aside, the same.

Soliders are never trained to think about the lives they take, that would be counter to their purpose.

CS Guy

on Jul 20, 2004

Soliders are never trained to think about the lives they take, that would be counter to their purpose.

This guy wasn't a soldier. Unless you count one day of discussion the training needed for a soldier. Marines are not asked to blow apart civilians, including children. And U.S soldiers are trained to think about the lives they may take. The very existence of Rules of Engagement prove this.

CS Guy

on Jul 20, 2004

Someone should show these children a different path..so that they can atleast choose between the two.

I keep hearing how Islam is the Religion of Peace. So why aren't these kids being taught peace?

bzjaffe

on Jul 20, 2004

The PA uses money given to them by the EU to give their kids textbooks that preach the death of Jews. The goes for what Arabs can watch on official PA TV where Imams say that they should kill Jews wherever they meet them. The reason this kid didn't mention anything about the lives he would have taken just shows how the Jews have been dehumanized through the eyes of terrorists. What is really scary is that these children are taught that their lives are only good for one thing, and that is death.

Palestinian supporters say that the main obstacle to peace is the occupation. I cannot see, however, how these people want peace if they teach their kids how to kill and only to kill. There have been many instances where a Palestinian was in a bad situation and the only way out of it, and to regain honor, was to kill Israelis. For example, Reem al-Reyashi, MOTHER OF 2, from Gaza was caught having an affair. Her only option to regain honor was that she would have to become a martry. She blew herself up, along with 4 other Israelis at a checkpoint in Gaza. The man she was having the affair with was a Hamas leader, who supplied the suicide belt. The man who drove her to the point of attack, her husband.

There will never be peace until the children are taught of peace, and the actual meaning of peace. When life becomes more honorful then death, then and only then, there will be peace.

bzjaffe

on Jul 20, 2004

If anyone is interested any further with the case of Reem al-Reyashi feel free to email me ( bzjaffe@msn.com ) so I can send you a piece I wrote following her attack in February.

bzjaffe

on Jul 20, 2004

Very true, and a point of clarification, these Imams and teachers are told to teach them what Arafat wants. That is the way it works in the autocratic PA. And these kids are told that their life has meaning. The best they can do: become a martyr.

Arabella III

on Jul 21, 2004

Was school really that bad for him? I can only imagin why anyone would want to kill themselves. : /

bzjaffe

on Jul 23, 2004

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