PORTRAIT OF A MAN WHO MASSACRED CHILDREN
Dr. Jai Maharaj
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
Portrait of a man who massacred children
By Robert Tait
The Times, UK
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Posted on 08/20/2003 4:43 PM PDT by saquin
Raed Abdel Misk, with his daughter, Samir and son
Mo'umen. The bomb that he carried on to a bus yesterday
killed 20, including 5 children.
THERE is no trace of evil in the beaming face of the
proud father balancing his two young children in his
arms. Yet Raed Abdel Misk, a religious scholar, was
identified yesterday as the suicide bomber who took the
lives of Jewish infants barely old enough to walk.
The murder of 20 people, including five children — the
youngest 11 months old — and the wounding of 120 others,
40 of them children, is being dubbed the Massacre of the
Children. However, the bomber’s relatives spoke of a
family man respected in his community as an imam and
scholar.
Misk’s relatives, gathered in a hall in Hebron yesterday
to mourn and celebrate his passing as a Palestinian
shaheed (martyr), said that he would have been
unconcerned about killing Israeli children. His son,
Moumen, (whose name means “Believer” in Arabic) and his
daughter, Samir, are aged four and 18 months
respectively. His wife, Arij, is five months pregnant
with their third child.
Yet on Tuesday night Misk, 29, boarded the No 2 bus in
Jerusalem, crowded with Ultra Orthodox Jewish worshippers
and their children returning from prayers at the Wailing
Wall. He was armed with a 5kg (11lb) bomb packed with
nails and shrapnel.
“When he got on the bus and saw all the children, he
would think of his own children,” Ayad Misk, 32, a
cousin, said. “But he would think, OK, today they are
children but in 15 or 20 years they are going to be
Israeli soldiers and they could be coming here to Hebron
and killing his own son or daughter or other members of
his family.”
In fact, ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempt from serving in
the Israeli Army. Beit Y’Israel, the neighbourhood where
the explosion occurred, is home to many members of the
Neturei Karta, a sect that does not recognise Israel’s
right to exist and supports Palestinian statehood.
Members of the sect were seen among the crowds observing
the rescue effort after the bombing.
The classic profile of a suicide bomber is an unmarried
male in his late teens or early 20s. Misk was a lecturer
on Islamic law at Hebron’s Sharia College and studying to
become a Muslim magistrate — qualifying him to sit at
Islamic courts — at al-Najah University in Nablus. The
families of some Palestinian suicide bombers have
complained that Muslim clerics should be prepared to
sacrifice themselves rather than encourage other people’s
sons to do so.
As a member of Hamas, the Palestinian extremist group,
Misk was bent on avenging the deaths of two militants
from Hebron and two others in Nablus at the hands of the
Israeli Army in the past two months.
Relatives said that Misk would have regarded Tuesday’s
actions as “an eye for an eye” He was blown to pieces
before he could see the result of his actions.
Rescue crews described giving mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation to babies and having to calm infants as
they took them to hospital.
Ariel Sharon, Israel’s Prime Minister, told his Cabinet
colleagues that the perpetrators of the bombing were
animals.
The killings prompted Israel to prepare retaliatory raids
against the Palestinians, threatening to plunge the
Middle East into a new cycle of violence. Last night 15
Israeli tanks were reported to be heading for Ramallah,
where Yassir Arafat has his base.
Yesterday, Misk’s relatives said that he would have had
no regrets. They said that he had been driven to
martyrdom by resentment of the Israeli occupation and a
deep knowledge of the Koran.
“When he was travelling to Nablus and back he saw the
suffering of the people caused by the Israeli roadblocks
and the actions of the soldiers,” his cousin said. “What
he did on Tuesday he really believed in because he knew
what it meant to be a martyr. He never believed in the
hudna (Palestinian ceasefire) because he could see the
Israelis were destroying homes every day.”
Hours after Misk exploded his device, Israeli soldiers
went into Hebron and arrested 17 people, including his
two brothers. Yesterday, possessions were being moved out
of the family home in expectation of the Israeli Army
demolishing it, as is customary with the houses of
suicide bombers.
Posted on 08/20/2003 4:43 PM PDT by saquin
Source of the above and discussion here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/967560/posts
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
End of forwarded message
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Panchaang for 23 Shravan 5104, Wednesday, August 20, 2003:
Shubhanu Nama Samvatsare Dakshinaya Jivana Ritau
Singh Mase Krishna Pakshe Buddh Vasara Yuktayam
Rohini Nakshatr Vyaghat Yog
Taitil-Gar Karan Navami Yam Tithau
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of
this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent
the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright law
and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name,
current e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others
are not necessarily those of the poster.