As demonstrators all over the Western world bay for Israeli blood, an Iranian group has put up posters looking for people who are ready to travel to Israel and spill some more.
A group called Hizballah (“the party of Allah”), which is distinct from the wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Iran that is operating under that name in Lebanon, is recruiting in Iran itself for jihad suicide bombers who are willing to make their way to the Jewish state and blow themselves up in crowds of Jews.
This might seem to be a non-starter even among the “Death to Israel” crowd, but actually (contrary to the claims of Islamic apologists in the West), suicide bombing is sanctioned in the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, and thus the Iranian Hizballah group can count on their being at least some takers. The Qur’an says: “Indeed, Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth, because the garden will be theirs, they will fight in the way of Allah and will kill and be killed. It is a promise that is binding on him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an.” (9:111)
There is actually no trace in the Torah or Gospel of the idea that paradise is guaranteed to someone who kills for God and is killed in the process, but the idea that this promise is binding upon Allah is critically important. There is no other unequivocal promise of paradise in the Qur’an, and there are copious, luridly detailed descriptions of the tortures of the hellfire that is reserved for unbelievers, hypocrites, and those whose bad deeds outweigh their good deeds on Allah’s grand scales (cf. Qur’an 21:47). The suicide bomber, however, doesn’t have to worry about any of his bad deeds at all, for a place in paradise is guaranteed to him if he kills and is killed in the process.
The UK’s Daily Mail reported Saturday that in accord with that theology, “posters featuring calls for 'martyrdom' have appeared on the streets of Mashhad, imploring residents to submit their personal details for consideration.” The posters proclaim: “It's time for Jihad.” They don’t mean the jihad that the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) tried to sell us a few years back, that jihad meant getting the kids to school on time and hitting the gym regularly. No, this group is talking about the real thing, and is attempting to put together a “special battalion of martyr seekers for Palestine.'” That means people who get killed while in the process of killing.
This Iranian Hizballah group, says the Daily Mail, “has gone as far as providing potential recruits with the option to choose between using motorcycles or cars for their deployments to Israel.” How someone could drive from Iran to Israel and expect simply to breeze across the border in a time of war is not explained. It’s unlikely that any aspiring suicide jihadis could really get into Israel that way; on the other hand, the massive security lapse of Oct. 7 does indicate that the possibility that jihad suicide bombers from Iran could enter Israel cannot be entirely ruled out.
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However, even if no one at all signs up, or if the suicide bombers have no way to get at their intended targets, the recruitment itself will have served a valuable purpose, at least as far as the Iranian mullahs are concerned. For the Qur’an also directs Muslims to “strike terror in the enemies of Allah.” (8:60) Often the mere threat of another inhuman act can accomplish almost as much as the act itself, in demoralizing Israelis and those who support Israel, and making them think that the enemy is ferocious and implacable, and that flight or surrender are the only options.
Thus while it may be time for jihad, it is also time for resoluteness in the fight against it. The warriors of terror and the apostles of hate must not be allowed to prevail. It is a curious feature of our age of absurdity that people can gleefully celebrate the murders of other human beings and yet think that they have the moral high ground. Those who really occupy that high ground must not lose heart, but keep fighting.
