Supporters of the executed bombers mourn. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
The Bali bombers and martyrdom
The three terrorists most responsible for the 2002 Bali night club bombings were executed, said The Jakarta Post in an editorial, without ever having shown remorse for killing more than 200 people, largely foreign tourists. In fact, they “bragged of their imminent executions as an act of martyrdom.” Thanks to the “whole fiasco” of their drawn-out trial and media-friendly imprisonment, some will accept them as martyrs. We say, “good riddance.”
“It would be dangerously naive” to expect the executions to kill the impulses that led to the bombings, said Malaysia’s New Straits Times in an editorial. If the "murderous militancy” of the Islamist group “Jemaah Islamiyah appears to be on the retreat in Indonesia,” it’s because of increased law enforcement, not the end of local terrorism.
Still, few Indonesians will be converted to Jemaah Islamiyah’s bloody cause, said Tim Lindsey in Australia’s Herald Sun. The Bali bombings killed large numbers of foreigners, but most attacks by the group killed fellow Indonesian Muslims. “Just because the Bali bombers claim they will become ‘martyrs’” doesn’t mean Indonesians will be hot to avenge them.
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Recent comments | 12 total
Jakarta was where BO lived, attended school, and held citizenship as a child. How soon we ignore!
Death is what all Islamic extremists are looking for because they have deluded themselves into believing that God is on their side and when they die they will sit at God's right hand as a reward for their murderous activities here on Earth. If we want to take away some of their motivation for killing, than we need to lock them up for life instead of executing them. There is nothing more that an Islamic extremist wants than to die; don't give them the incentive and the pleasure. Sure, that sounds weird, but we aren't dealing with thoughtful people, just like anyone who thinks that simply because someone lived in a particular country as a child would automatically make them some sort of terrorist is not a thoughtful person.
Martyrdom is how they interpret executing these evil men. Execution is only preventative in that these men have 0% recidivism, 'cause they're dead. If a government decides that execution is a just sentence, whether these men (or their supporters) want it is irrelevant.
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