Mailbox

[June 13th, 2007] SUICIDE SOLUTION

I was flabbergasted to read Aaron Mesh's casual assertion (in his review of the new Belgian film Day Night Day Night) that "suicide bombing is a uniquely Islamic phenomenon." This is at best a profoundly misguided statement—at worst it is hateful and hate-mongering.

Has Aaron never heard of the Kamikaze fighters of Japan (mostly Shinto, I believe) or the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka (mostly Hindu, if I'm not mistaken)? Soviet fighters (most likely Atheist or Orthodox Christian) went on suicide missions during World War II as well. I'm guessing there are many more examples that I'm not aware of, but these few should be enough to put this sorry, sloppy, slanderous myth to rest permanently.

Not only is suicide bombing not exclusively Islamic, it is not Islamic at all—by definition. Some Muslims (and others) seem to consider it a justifiable tactic in circumstances of war or occupation, but even these circumstances could never make that kind of action "Islamic," any more than blowing up an abortion clinic could be considered "Christian." Just because an infinitesimally small percentage of people might be willing to do something "in the name of Islam" (or Christianity) does not make it an "Islamic" (or Christian or Hindu) act by the normative standards of those communities. The bottom line is that suicide is expressly forbidden in the Qur'an, as is the killing of any noncombatant in war, and both have always been understood to be very grave sins in Islam.

The emergence of suicide bombing as a military/political/terror tool is an extremely recent phenomenon in the Muslim world. If this kind of thing were a feature of authentic Islam, wouldn't we have been seeing something like it for around 1,400 years instead of around 14 years?

It's sad to see this kind of sloppy writing in a supposedly progressive weekly in a supposedly progressive city. Why Aaron Mesh was so quick to try to perpetuate these old prejudices against Islam is both mysterious and disappointing.

Ezra Ereckson
Southeast 28th Avenue

MAGNANIMOUS MOGULS

In the June 6 Murmurs, WW wrote: "As for any link between Pamplin's largesse and DSL's lax regulation, gubernatorial spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor says, 'The governor's not swayed by contributions.'"

Oh, silly me, I must've forgotten why people donate to political candidates. Here I thought that it was for political gain, such as Microsoft donating $1 million to each party every election cycle. But the truth is that millionaires just donate out of the kindness of their heart, expecting nothing in return.

Lujane Minh
Northwest Everett Street

CORRECTIONS

WW incorrectly reported last week in "Drunken Brawl" that Portland's 2007-08 budget has money for pregnancy trainers or "doulas." It does not.

Also, WW incorrectly reported the attribution of the statement in last week's "Fired Up Again," about why Melodie Silverwolf and Madeline Martinez wouldn't work with Parker Bell on a new marijuana initiative. A sentence that said Silverwolf and Martinez don't want marijuana decriminalized for felons and do want to limit the amount of marijuana that could be harvested from plants should have been attributed to Bell. Silverwolf and Martinez say they don't have a problem with decriminalizing marijuana for felons, but still wanted the initiative to limit the amount to three ounces per plant. They didn't want to work with Bell because of what they say were "ethical differences."

We regret the errors.