We’re all used by now to “radical” Imams instructing the Muslim youth to strap on some dynamite, detonate, kill infidels, and enter paradise–as this Imam told British Muslims, or as “superstar” Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi told millions of al-Jazeera viewers–and well demonstrated by polls that show that a considerable number of young Muslims think suicide bombings are justifiable. But many have insisted that suicide bombings were a recent phenomenon. According to some Pakistani ulema, however, suicide bombings in the name of Islam and shahada (martyrdom) go back to the 1965 war with India. “Suicide bombing and Islam,” by Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) for the Pak Tribune, July 23:
Though most Ulema condemn suicide bombing as unIslamic, yet a few offer bizarre justifications for it. A few days back a so called aalim was heard over the TV saying that during 65 war Ayub Khan had ordered his soldiers to lay in front of the 500 Indian tanks advancing on Lahore with anti tank mines tied to their chests as there was no other way of stopping them. About three days ago yet another religious authority said on the TV that Pak army soldiers lay in front of 600 Indian tanks in Chowinda sector with mines on their chest and embraced Shahadat. These gentlemen who did not have the foggiest idea of a tank battle or knew as to where the Indian tanks were — Lahore or Chowinda – were narrating such concocted stories simply to justify the suicide bombing in Islam.