8-year-old Afghan tricked into suicide bombing

Middle East • June 2011 • Views: 1,492

Of the many desperate, sadistic tactics deployed by insurgents in Afghanistan, this is surely among the worst ever recorded: Authorities say that an 8-year-old girl was tricked into carrying a concealed bomb close to a police vehicle, where it was remotely detonated, the Associated Press reports. Only she died.

The incident occurred in a remote village called Uwshi, in the Charchino District, said Fazal Ahmad Shirzad, the police chief of Uruzguan Province.

Shirzad told the New York Times he believes that the girl was completely unaware that the bag that she had been given by Taliban insurgents held a bomb.

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11 comments

b_Snark Sun, Jun 26, 2011 7:26:54pm

Religious evil makes girls expendable.

These men need to die.

CuriousLurker Sun, Jun 26, 2011 7:44:34pm

re: #1 b_sharp

These men need to die.

Agreed.

b_Snark Sun, Jun 26, 2011 7:53:29pm

re: #2 CuriousLurker

Agreed.

The biggest problem I have with religion is the inordinate power it has to control peoples minds when used by evil people. It can be used by evil people to make others willing perform evil acts. Taking the life of an innocent girl, partially because of their interpretation of religious tenets and partially because the girl had opportunities they can't stomach, is beyond words.

CuriousLurker Sun, Jun 26, 2011 9:22:58pm

I dunno, b. I'm not gonna try to deny that people use religion to justify all kinds of horrible, twisted things, but there are plenty of atrocities that have been committed without being "enhanced" by twisted religious fervor (I'm talking serial killers, bloody invasions a la the Mongols, megalomaniacal rulers, etc.)

I don't think religion has any special power beyond what we give it. What I'm saying is we use it as an excuse; it can't make someone do something they're not already inclined to do. It's a choice.

I've seen people go from being gang bangers to hard-line salafis. All they did was swap one set of extremes for another, the added "bonus" being that since the new cover was religious, it was somehow more acceptable since they were no longer breaking any laws and getting thrown in jail. The extremity in their personalities still remained though, and it could be prodded in a dangerous direction.

IMO, this has less to do with religion than it does with (lack of) personal responsibility and the presence of people who would psychologically manipulate others—whether it's membership in the "brotherhood" of a street gang or a group of religious extremists makes little difference. And, FWIW, I'm not 100% convinced that there's not some level of complicity involved in allowing oneself to be manipulated (children being the exception).

Afghanistan was an extremely rough tribal society long before the arrival of Islam, and in fact their tribal customs still tend to take precedence over religious laws. I don't believe for a minute that if there was a tribal conflict going on there and you took religion out of the equation, that abominations such as little girls being blown up would stop. Those things won't change until the tribal mindset changes.

And, sadly, human atrocities won't stop as long as there's a darkness within us that we give license to come to the surface and dictate our behavior.

Okay, this is getting too long. Time to go get some shut-eye.

FreedomMoon Sun, Jun 26, 2011 9:53:37pm

re: #4 CuriousLurker

I understand your logic, and I respectfully disagree. I think religion should be given much more credit (fault would be a better word) to being able to twist someone's psyche to the point of submission and willingness to follow blindly and ultimately commit atrocities. Sure there are crazy people out there, but religion has the ability to turn sane people crazy, stronger than any other external force.

SanFranciscoZionist Sun, Jun 26, 2011 10:03:19pm

re: #1 b_sharp

Religious evil makes everyone, especially girls expendable.

These men need to die.

FTFY.

And yes. They do.

Flavia Sun, Jun 26, 2011 10:08:12pm

There are no words that exist to express by hatred, disgust, anger - these vermin need to be wiped out. That poor precious baby!!!

Ericus58 Mon, Jun 27, 2011 5:05:27am

re: #5 tacuba14

I understand your logic, and I respectfully disagree. I think religion should be given much more credit (fault would be a better word) to being able to twist someone's psyche to the point of submission and willingness to follow blindly and ultimately commit atrocities. Sure there are crazy people out there, but religion has the ability to turn sane people crazy, stronger than any other external force.

I think reality would show that a large majority of people in our modern world today that follow religious teachings are peaceful and observe the rule of law.

I fear for the future of Afghanistan - there will be much suffering ahead.

b_Snark Mon, Jun 27, 2011 12:27:02pm

re: #8 Ericus58

I think reality would show that a large majority of people in our modern world today that follow religious teachings are peaceful and observe the rule of law.

I fear for the future of Afghanistan - there will be much suffering ahead.

I'm not suggesting that religion makes people evil, so the existence of good religious people doesn't run counter to my argument. What I am saying is that as a tool that is used from day one in a person's life to inculcate reliance on absolutes with rewards/punishment that extend beyond death towards developing unquestioning obedience, nothing comes close to religion. It promotes the afterlife above physical life so actions in the physical realm are undertaken with the ideal of the afterlife in mind.

CuriousLurker Mon, Jun 27, 2011 12:44:39pm

re: #5 tacuba14

I understand your logic, and I respectfully disagree. I think religion should be given much more credit (fault would be a better word) to being able to twist someone's psyche to the point of submission and willingness to follow blindly and ultimately commit atrocities. Sure there are crazy people out there, but religion has the ability to turn sane people crazy, stronger than any other external force.

Thanks; if we all agreed all the time life would be boring, heh. You didn't say why you think that though, or how religion does this.

I probably would've largely agreed with you 18 months ago, but being here at LGF has changed my mind, and most of that is due to talking with atheists (though I doubt they expected their words to have the effect they did). Let me explain why:

Atheists don't believe in God because they say reason, logic, empirical evidence, etc. don't support the existence of an all-powerful, eternal, creator-being. They see religious beliefs as superstition, fantasy, fairy tales, mythology, whatever. This means that religion is just another human construct, an ideology concocted by a person or group of people to meet some common need, to impose order or give meaning.

There is nationalism, communism, conservatism, 1001 ideological "-isms". None of them have any power on their own. They're just words, concepts sans any magical powers to help or harm. They are inert. Contact with the human mind and all its complexities is the catalyst that provides the "magical powers", so to speak. Extreme nationalism, for example, can be every bit as dangerous as extreme religiosity, IMO.

As Ericus58 mentioned in his #8 above, if religion truly had the power to blind its followers and turn them into automatons devoid of free will, then the vast majority of religious people in the world wouldn't be law-abiding citizens, they'd be more like zombie hordes wreaking death & destruction in every neighborhood in every corner of the world. Again, the problem is extremity. Most people love to some degree or other. Some people become obsessed and will stalk & kill the object of their love if they can't have it. Is this love's fault? Does this mean that love is inherently dangerous and therefore threat?

Anyway, I'm still mentally chewing on this revised opinion of mine, so I'm sort of thinking out loud here. And it IS just that—an opinion, and only a partially formed one at that. Feel free to point out any weaknesses in my logic.

CuriousLurker Mon, Jun 27, 2011 12:51:11pm

re: #9 b_sharp

I'm not suggesting that religion makes people evil, so the existence of good religious people doesn't run counter to my argument. What I am saying is that as a tool that is used from day one in a person's life to inculcate reliance on absolutes with rewards/punishment that extend beyond death towards developing unquestioning obedience, nothing comes close to religion. It promotes the afterlife above physical life so actions in the physical realm are undertaken with the ideal of the afterlife in mind.

I'll have to chew on that too. I'm not yet convinced that nothing else comes close to developing unquestioning obedience or reliance on absolutes, and the carrot/stick doesn't motivate everyone equally, IMO. I need to look for examples...

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