Interview with Umm Nidal: Palestinian Authority/Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project

The following is a special dispatch email that I receive from WWW.MEMRITV.ORG in a regular weekly basis.  I have found this one to be extremely interesting because it explores the rational behind suicide bombing.  Umm Nidal is a mother of a suicide bomber and now a Palestinian politician when Hamas won the election.  If you have not read about her or heard her before now, you are in for some real insight.

Special Dispatch - Palestinian Authority / Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project March 10, 2006 No. 1111

Palestinian Legislative Council Member "Umm Nidal" on Saudi Iqra TV: A Muslim Mother Should Raise Her Children for Jihad; Interviewer Iqra TV Director-General Critical of Arab TV Channels That Don't Support Martyrdom Operations

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit:
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD111106 .

The following are excerpts from an interview with Palestinian Legislative Council member "Umm Nidal" Farhat, aired on Saudi Iqra TV, on February 19, 2006.

TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1066 .


Iqra TV Director-General Nabil Hammad: "Yesterday I saw on some TV channels - Arab TV channels, I'm sad to say - translated programs that portray the Palestinian mujahideen as seeking the black-eyed virgins in operations for killing Israelis - as if they enjoy killing those poor Israeli Jews. They turned the picture completely upside-down. One people oppresses another people. A nation in its entirety is suffering, its homes are occupied, and all its capabilities are destroyed. Yet this nation faces demands not to fight. We are talking about resistance to the occupier.

"Go ahead."

Umm Nidal: "This is resistance, and nobody can say otherwise, no matter what methods are used. All methods are legitimate in resistance against the occupier."

Nabil Hammad: "As you know, there are plans to strip the resistance of its meaning, and say it is terrorism. Even the resistance is now called 'terrorism.' You learn something new every day..."

[...]

Umm Nidal: "Ever since [my son] Muhammad was a little boy, he carried and used a weapon. This was natural for him. It is not that he all of a sudden took up a weapon, carried out operations, and so on. This was a gradual process for him, ever since he was little.

"There was an operation that was about to take place - the same operation that he eventually carried out. [My eldest son] Nidal, may he rest in peace, said to me: 'I want to give this operation to my brother Muhammad.' He insisted on this because he loved Muhammad very much. He chose him. He chose him for the operation over the rest of the guys. Some of the guys were even a little mad at him for not considering them for this operation, but he said: 'By Allah, this operation leads to Paradise, and I will choose nobody but my brother.'"

[...]

"Allah be praised, we have thousands of young men. They all yearn for martyrdom for the sake of Allah. Some of them even cry when they do not get the chance to commit martyrdom. As long as we have such determination, we will prevail, Allah willing."

Nabil Hammad: "Umm Nidal, we always hear Palestinian mothers who say: 'We give birth to martyrs.' Could you explain this?"

Umm Nidal: "Obviously, our reality imposes this on us. We believe in the faith charted for us by Allah, and believe that if someone is destined to die, he will die, even if he hides in a crate - but why shouldn't we take the initiative and die as martyrs? There is a great chasm between one form of dying and the other. So why shouldn't we choose martyrdom? Allah has chosen us, from among all people, and has bestowed upon us the honor of Jihad in the front line of Palestine. So it is all the more fitting for us to initiate martyrdom, before death reaches us while we sit at home."

Nabil Hammad: "You have a beautiful saying that goes: 'What is life worth when one accepts humiliation?'"

Umm Nidal: "True."

[...]

Nabil Hammad: "What is your message to all the Muslim mothers, who want to raise their sons, and hope they will attain worldly things, university degrees, luxurious palaces, and fancy cars?"

[...]

Umm Nidal: "A Muslim mother should raise her children on prayer, good deeds, and, of course, on Jihad, which is one of the duties on which we should raise our children."

[...]

"Jihad in Islam is a duty that one cannot forego. It is like any other religious duty. If we understand the true meaning of Islam, the notion of Jihad will be included among the Islamic duties, and in Palestine - an individual duty. If we are remiss in this duty, we sin."


For More on "Umm Nidal"

*Palestinian Legislative Council Candidate and Bereaved Mother of Three Hamas Terrorists Umm Nidal Farhat: Israelis are Not Civilians and There are No Prohibitions on Killing Them. I am Willing to Sacrifice all My Sons,

MEMRI TV Clip No. 980, Dream 2 TV (Egypt), December 21, 2005:
http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=980 .

*Umm Nidal: 'The Mother of the Shahids,'
MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 673, March 4, 2004:
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP67304 .

*An Interview With the Mother of a Suicide Bomber,
MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 391, June 19, 2002:
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP39102 .

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