My life is a weapon : a modern history of suicide bombing / Christoph Reuter ; translated by Helena Ragg-Kirkby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reuter, Christoph.

Standardized Title:

Mein Leben ist eine Waffe. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Violence--Religious aspects--Islam.

Violence.

Suicide bombers.

Martyrdom--Islam.

Martyrdom.

Islam and politics.

Arab-Israeli conflict.

Physical Description:

viii, 200 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2004]

Summary:

What kind of people are suicide bombers? How do they justify their actions? In this meticulously researched and sensitively written book, journalist Christoph Reuter argues that popular views of these young men and women -- as crazed fanatics or brainwashed automatons -- fall short of the mark. In many cases these modern-day martyrs are well-educated young adults who turn themselves into human bombs willingly and eagerly -- to exact revenge on a more powerful enemy, perceived as both unjust and oppressive. Suicide assassins are determined to make a difference, for once in their lives, no matter what the cost. As Reuter's many interviews with would-be martyrs, their trainers, friends, and relatives reveal, the bombers are motivated more by how they expect to be remembered -- as heroic figures -- than by religion-infused visions of a blissful life to come. Reuter, who spent eight years researching the book, moves from the broken survivors of the childrens' suicide brigades in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, to the war-torn Lebanon of Hezbollah, to Israeli-occupied Palestinian land, and to regions as disparate as Sri Lanka, Chechnya, and Kurdistan. He tells a disturbing story of the modern globalization of suicide bombing -- orchestrated, as his own investigations have helped to establish, by the shadowy al-Qaeda network and unintentionally enabled by wrong-headed policies of Western governments. In a final, hopeful chapter, Reuter points to today's postrevolutionary, post-Khomeini Iran, where a new social environment renounces the horrific practice in the very place where it was enthusiastically embraced just decades ago.

Contents:

Introduction: The Power of the Powerless, the Powerlessness of the Powerful 1

Chapter 1 The Original Assassins: A History of Faith and Power in the Islamic World 19

Chapter 2 A Key to Paradise around Their Necks: Iran's Suicide Battalions 33

Chapter 3 The Marketing Strategists of Martyrdom: Hezbollah in Lebanon 52

Chapter 4 Israel and Palestine: The Culture of Death 79

Chapter 5 Suicide or Martyrdom? Modern Islam and the Feud of the Fatwas 115

Chapter 6 Bushido Replaces Allahu akbar: The Japanese Kamikaze 130

Chapter 7 The Parasites of Anger: Al-Qaeda and the Islamist Internationale 139

Chapter 8 Separatist Movements and Female Suicide Bombers: The Cases of Sri Lanka and Kurdistan 155

Chapter 9 After Martyrdom: Recent Developments in Iran 167.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [181]-193) and index.

ISBN:

0691117594

OCLC:

53901226