c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) As terrorists seem to be competing in the barbarity of their vicious attacks across the globe, the question of why people would do such a thing _ although frequently asked _ fails to lose relevance.

To this day, Americans continue to ask “why do they hate us?” when it comes to the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001. It is a natural question. As a physician, I have not stopped racking my brain over how it can be that practicing doctors _ who are bound to preserve human life _ could be charged with the recent failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow. It was a shock that will never really go away.

Yet, not all are surprised that doctors could be terrorists. Alan Krueger, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, recently said: “Although terrorists come from varied backgrounds, much research finds that they are disproportionally well-educated and from middle-class or higher-income families. Engineers and doctors, in fact, are probably the two most common professions among terrorists.”

Kreuger argues in his forthcoming book, “What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism,” that it is a misconception to think most terrorists are poor and ill-educated.

Still, it is hard for most people _ including this author _ to understand how someone could resolve to strap a bomb to his chest and detonate it among innocent people in order to commit mass murder. For the terrorists of the Muslim flavor, they justify such action by claiming that being a suicide bomber is an act of “holy war”; and that in traditional Muslim theology, someone who dies in “holy war” will become a martyr who instantly goes to heaven. Such rationale is a wholesale abandonment of centuries of Islamic principles and theology.

First of all, murder is strictly forbidden in Islam: “And do not take a life that God has made sacred, except for just cause,” the Quran reads. By no stretch of the imagination is killing innocent people a “just cause.”

Suicide is equally forbidden by the Quran: “And spend for the sake of God,and do not invest in ruin by your own hands. And do good, for God loves those who do good.”

The Quran also says, “And do not kill yourselves, for God has been merciful to you.” The strict prohibition against suicide is also mirrored in the prophetic literature. Thus, the suicide bomber doubly betrays the principles of Islam by killing both himself and others.

In addition, the suicide bomber thinks he can get an “instant ticket” to heaven with the press of a button. This also runs counter to Islamic belief. The purpose of life on earth is to do one’s best to live a good life, in accordance with the commandments of God.

Although Islam actively encourages worldly success, it should never distract the person from fulfilling what God has commanded: “But seek the abode of the hereafter with what God has bestowed on you, and do not forget your part in this world. And be good, as God has been good to you. And do not seek corruption on earth, for God does not love the corrupt.”

That process of “seeking the abode of the hereafter,” however, is not without hardship. The path to salvation is _ and always has been _ a difficult one. This is the essence of jihad _ often mistranslated as “holy war” but which literally means “struggle.” Jihad is the struggle to rise above human temptation and do good on earth. Even the Prophet Muhammad said the battle against one’s own temptations is the “greater jihad.”

This struggle, this jihad, takes patience and perseverance, and the reward for this patience is heaven, as illustrated by this Quranic verse: “And the angels enter their presence from every gateway (saying): `Peace be upon you, for you were patient; and how excellent the reward of paradise!”’

To think that one can bypass the struggle to live a good life on earth _ essentially “cut in line” _ and go straight to heaven by becoming a suicide bomber would be laughable were it not a tragic mode of thought that has led to the pain and suffering of scores of innocent human beings.

Suicide terrorism is a relatively new phenomenon, and scholars debate over the reasons behind it. Yet, the religious justification cited by terrorists who claim to be Muslim is an egregious distortion of the principles of Islam.

The path to heaven is a difficult one, and the believer must patiently remain steadfast on the path that God has outlined in order to be graced with paradise. There is no way to get around this fact, least of all by strapping a bomb on one’s chest and killing innocent people. Such a person is not a martyr; he is murderer, plain and simple.

(Hesham A. Hassaballa is a physician in the greater Chicago area. He is co-author of “The Beliefnet Guide to Islam,” published by Doubleday. His Web site is: http://www.drhassaballa.com.)

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A file photo of Hassaballa is available via https://religionnews.com.