In Islam, as in the other Abrahamic religions, suicide is considered a grievous sin, worthy of special punishment in the afterlife. As in the other Abrahamic religions, suicide for a worthy cause is excepted.
In the West, one method of attempted punishment avoidance has come to be known as "suicide by cop"
My hypothesis about the lone wolf terrorist attacks that are occurring, recently, perpetrated by disaffected Muslims, is a punishment avoidance method, whereby the attack is part of "jihad", which like the Crusades of old, excused all sorts of atrocities.
This may explain why sometimes there is no claim of responsibility by either ISIS or Al Qaeda; they didn't know about it beforehand. Some young man, decides to end a seemingly unbearable life, and looks for personal salvation by killing the "enemy".
Sounds right on!
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ReplyDeleteI find it disturbing in nature that religions are used as the reasoning for either the giving up of one's life, or the taking of others' lives. Is that considered either honoring one's God or appeasing one's God through the sacrifice of life? Yet, many religions with ancient foundations have sanctioned such measures. Crusades? Jihads? What sort of commentary is that for a religion professing a loving God? Maybe love needs to be redefined.
ReplyDeleteSome opinions of others:
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." ~ Blaise Pascal
"No one in their right mind would let a first-century dentist fill their children’s teeth. Why, then, do we allow first-century theologians to fill our children’s minds?" ~ Michael Dowd
"Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
Ancient religions like the Mayans, later the Incans, and finally the Aztecs all passed on the ancient practice of ritual sacrifice ... have we really evolved as humans where religion is concerned? Groups throughout history have sacrificed lives in the interest of their religions. Is Daesh any more or less brutal in practice than many of these other religions?
For the love of God ... maybe we had better rethink that one. I believe that is one of the biggest differences between religion and spirituality. But that's just my opinion ... then again, I don't sacrifice life.