Jihadist suicide: a moral ideal

Abstract

Many analysts mistake suicide bombing as a "natural" consequence of political grievance: as the ultimate in the politics of despair, citing the plight of Palestinians as the central case study. My contention is that the suicide-murder doctrine had its genesis in Revolutionary Iran and became institutionalised during the war years with Iraq (1980-1988). The ideology that supported suicide on the battlefield is identical to that of the suicide terrorist globally. The training of insurgents outside of Iran - including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the al Qaeda global network - ensured the development of the phenomenon best termed Jihadist Suicide. Putting this phenotnenon into a sociological and historical context, this work draws on comparative and ethnographic techniques to analyse significant concepts - like suicide, martyrdom, secularisation and ideology - to identify the nuances of Jihadist Suicide. It is argued that in the history of ethnic conflict, this form of suicide has been rare.Tradition does not support acts of such suicide - not even in its political or religious guise as martyrdom. Historically, it never occurred as a globalised phenomenon. Rather, it is a product of late modernity, whereby a world driven by ontological insecurity and uncertainty has opened the way for political elites and counter-elites to introduce radical ideas. It is not deviant behaviour, as is the common perception of suicide, but a moral ideal.