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"Write out of love, write out of instinct, write out of reason. But always for money."
Louis Untermeyer

The Occasional Muse
My humble opinion on current events

June 19, 2001

Child Sacrifice in the 21st Century

Various ancient cultures used to practice child sacrifice. The Palestinian Authority has resurrected this barbaric practice. But it's not for purely religious reasons, though its practitioners claim it is. No, today child sacrifice is used for ritual murder.

We know this because of a chilling interview with one Umm Nidal in the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Aswat. Her son, Muhammad Farhat, was a recent suicide bomber. Portions of the interview were translated by the Middle East Media Research Center and posted on its web site. 

Words can barely describe this interview. Horrifying. Monstrous. Those come close. I'll post some excerpts, and you can make up your own mind.

"Allah be praised, I am a Muslim and I believe in Jihad. Jihad is one of the elements of the faith and this is what encouraged me to sacrifice Muhammad in Jihad for the sake of Allah."

"Jihad is a [religious] commandment imposed upon us. We must instill this idea in our sons' souls, all the time..."

"I am a compassionate mother to my children... Because I love my son, I encouraged him to die a martyr's death for the sake of Allah."

"Jihad is a religious obligation incumbent upon us, and we must carry it out. I sacrificed Muhammad as part of my obligation. This is an easy thing."

"I, as a mother, naturally encouraged the love of Jihad in the soul of Muhammad and in the souls of all my sons."

"I prayed from the depths of my heart that Allah would cause the success of his operation. I asked Allah to give me ten [Israelis] for Muhammad, and Allah granted my request and Muhammad made his dream come true, killing ten Israeli settlers and soldiers. Our God honored him even more, in that there were many Israelis wounded."

This is just sick. It's disgusting. It is inhuman.

If that peace-loving, Nobel-peace-prize-winner Yassir Arafat was serious about wiping out terrorism, which he isn't, he'd arrest this woman for murder. She clearly aided and abetted her son's descent into hatred and madness. She goaded him, encouraged him, "sacrificed" him. Surely she holds some responsibility.

But Arafat's not serious. He never has been. He denounced terrorism  in 1989 and never stopped practicing it. He's a liar. How can anyone negotiate in good faith with a murdering liar?

Arafat could wipe out terrorism in the Palestinian Authority at any time. He's got the manpower, the muscle. He was strong enough to wipe out any serious opposition in his heralded "election" in 1996. Instead, he talks a good game and allows terrorist leaders to hatch their evil plots at will, with no consequences.

But why should Arafat wipe out terrorism? Look where it's gotten him. He commands his own little quasi-country, a big shark in a tiny pond. He's won the Nobel peace prize. His posterior is kissed by diplomats all over the world. Stupid governments send him millions of dollars. For the first time ever, an American president has announced a Palestinian state as a desirable goal. So what if the Palestinian Authority has no infrastructure, no economy (many Palestinians cross the border into Israel to work), no rule of law, no free press, nothing but terrorism and misery? He's in charge and is about to be handed his own little country, so that's all that counts.

What, exactly, has the Palestinian Authority done to warrant its own state? Has it built anything besides an airport and refugee camps? Does it have any credible political institutions? Any industry? Any signs of any prosperity anywhere?

As far as I can tell, the only thing the Palestinian Authority has done to deserve its own state is murder. That's all. The more it murders, the more concessions it gets. So it shouldn't be surprising that it just can't seem to stop itself from murdering.

But it's worse. Now it brainwashes innocents to do the murdering. Mothers like Umm Nidal and radical Muslim clerics and terrorist crazies rob their own children of life to steal the lives of others. This is their great achievement.