"40,000 Time Bombs in Iran"
Tue, Jul 5, 2005 at 8:34:51 pm PDT
On the Iranian Movement of “Martyrdom Seekers.”
Martyrdom-seeking movement member Vesaly: My name is Vesaly... We are first and foremost Muslims and it is our duty to defend our brothers and sisters throughout the world. We don’t need permission from anybody. This has to do with our religious duty and responsibilities. This is our choice, and we have no fear. We adhere to the legacy of our late leader, Imam Khomeini.
Crowd: There is no God but Allah. There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s messenger.
Reporter: These young women have forsaken the temptations of life, and have taken the hard way. Indeed, they have chosen martyrdom as a way of liberating the Islamic lands. This is what they say.
40,000 time bombs in Iran - this is the number of volunteers so far, and the registration is still open. There is no distinction between men and women, Sunnis or Shiites. “We all sacrifice for the sake of Islam,” they chant. This is the movement of martyrdom seekers, whose goals and organizational structure are still unclear. They refused to give further details, but did not conceal their determination to sacrifice their lives. The reason - what America has done in the holy places of Najaf and Karbala.
Firooz Rajai, a movement leader : In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The movement of martyrdom seekers began after the American campaign against Najaf and Karbala in Iraq over a year ago. The religious scholars decided that such a movement should be established in this country, whose majority are Shiites, in order to support their brothers, especially following the experience of the war that was forced on Iran by the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.
Reporter: This is a symbolic grave of the first man who tried to get rid of Salman Rushdi. Here, there are also symbolic graves commemorating the people who killed hundreds of American and French soldiers in Lebanon, in 1983.
This young mother from Palestine, who sacrificed her life and blew herself up at an Israeli checkpost, is a role model for the movement’s members, who believe this is the only way to liberate the Palestinian lands, and especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
