Paradise

Paradise in a garden.

I came across an interesting quotation in another Dawkins' book in which he was lambasting religious fundamentalism. The quote was from an op-ed by Nasra Hassan for The New Yorker titled An Arsenal of Believers:

"The power of the spirit pulls us upward, while the power of material things pulls us downward," he said. "Someone bent on martyrdom becomes immune to the material pull." Our planner asked, "What if the operation fails?" We told him, "in any case, we get to meet the Prophet and his companions, inshallah". We were floating, swimming, in the feeling that we were about to enter eternity. We had no doubts. We made an oath on the Koran, in the presence of Allah - a pledge not to waver. This jihad pledge is called bayt al ridwan, after the garden in Paradise that is reserved for the prophets and the martyrs. I know that there are other ways to do jihad. But this one is sweet - the sweetest. All martyrdom operations, if done for Allah's sake, hurt less than a gnat's bite!"

The rest of the article which is an interesting read can be found here. This quote reminded me of the movie Paradise Now which I watched a couple of weeks back. I thought it offered a new perspective on the suicide bomber. I always knew that it was religious indoctrination that lead these young impressionable men to their deaths, but through the movie I saw the circumstances of their lives and the stench of desperation that lingered in their community. And it is this desperation that makes the alternative, death, a paradise of sorts. And perhaps because of this desperation, a result of economic and political oppression, that religion takes another fall. Religion, albeit taken out of context, is just the nectar that sweetens the deal, not the hand that directs. The Palestinian issue is now no longer the media darling, being overshadowed by bloodshed in Iraq and sabre rattling over Iran and North Korean. Nevertheless, it is pertinent to note that the Palestinian situation could easily be replicated anywhere else, and perhaps it already has been.