Martyrs: Innocence, Vengeance, and Despair in the Middle East

Joyce M. Davis courageously offers unvarnished, uncomfortable and, at time, disturbing coverage of Islamic terrorism and its underlying factors (pg. 9). Davis helps her American audience better understand Islamic militants and their rationale in order to develop policies that could lead to the militants? ultimate defeat (pg. 22). Terrorism finds a favorable breeding ground in the swamps of cultural deprivation, misery and hopelessness (pg. 26). The rampant human suffering in the Middle East can turn some Muslims into economically, emotionally, and/or spiritually vulnerable targets for terrorist headhunters (16, 104, 119, 131-133, 152-154). Many moderate Muslim scholars consider that suicide bombers who kill and maim the innocent are not justified according to the Qur?an (pg. 5, 20, 94, 110-111, 141, 202). The concepts of terrorism and martyrdom are not exclusive to Islam and the Middle East (pg. 23-24, 192). At the same time, however, there is widespread understanding of suicide bombers and their actions among many moderate Muslim leaders and citizens across classes in the Middle East (pg. 10, 182, 194, 202). Many Muslims think that the U.S. is to be blamed for blindly supporting Israel and having double standards at their expense. The U.S., they argue, garners international support against Islamic countries like Iraq and Iran at the U.N. while conveniently ignoring U.N. resolutions against Israel (pg. 36-37, 109, 122, 143, 159). Furthermore, many Muslims criticize the U.S for propping up their undemocratic, unaccountable governments both financially and militarily (pg. 5, 12, 90, 165, 169, 192-193). The regimes in control have marginalized their secular opponents and have been unable to eliminate the religious-based opposition groups or the underground militants (pg. 11-12, 165-166, 170). Although Islamic militants are not closer to their goals than they were at the birth of Israel in May 1948, they still cling to the hope that they can achieve them militarily (pg. 14, 43-44, 148). Islamic militants want to make clear to every settler that they have no future in Palestinian territories (pg. 102, 157). Islamic militants remind that Israelis unilaterally withdrew from the South of Lebanon under repetitive attacks by Hezbollah (pg. 70-71, 157). Similarly, the Israeli government is convinced that diplomacy and negotiations lead almost nowhere, and that the military option is the only one to deliver results (pg. 167, 171-172). Some analysts underline that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s tactics have not stopped the violence against Israelis and are actually encouraging terrorism (pg. 167-171). The security fence, also called wall, that Israel is building along or close to the green line is an implicit recognition that the military option alone and Jewish settlements policy in the West Bank and Gaza are to a large extent sub-optimal (pg. 168-169, 172). Many critics say a wall will not keep terrorists out of Israel totally (pg. 172).

I bought this book after seeing the author on television. She does a good job of explaining the motivations behind suicide bombers and the book makes it clear that this is a real danger for the US because the people who do this are not going to be stopped by large scale military actions, they are not united into one army that can be defeated. They are ready to give their lives to make a statement and to make their case known. We need to be aware of this.