Can We Negotiate Peace with People who Believe in Child Sacrifice?

April 3, 2002

by Mary Mostert - Banner of Liberty

For the last few thousand years, the Jews and the Arabs have not been happy with each other. The issue has always revolved around both religion and land. It is no different today.

A quick visit to terrorist websites like Hamas and Islamic Jihad illustrates the depth of the problem. “As the precursor of the Hamas movement, the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza promoted the long-term strategy of creating the foundations of a Muslim state that would eventually become powerful enough to destroy Israel.”

O.K. That’s one side of this conflict.

The other side, the State of Israel says, on its website that “The birthplace of the Jewish people is the Land of Israel. (Eretz Israel). There, a significant part of the nation’s long history was enacted, of which the first thousand years are recorded in the Bible; there, its cultural, religious and national identity was formed; and there, its physical presence has been maintained unbroken through the centuries, even after the majority was forced into exile. During the many years of dispersion, the Jewish people never severed nor forgot its bond with the Land. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish independence, lost two thousand years earlier, was renewed.”

That’s the other side. The argument for the State of Israel begins, on the website, many thousands of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. The religious conflict, which is reported in the Old Testament, is being renewed in an era of suicide bombings.

During the month of March, the State of Israel, which is a little smaller land mass and has a 25% smaller population than the State of New Jersey, lost 125 people from suicide bombers and snipers, some as young as age 18.

So, how does one negotiate with a group of people who are teaching their young children that the highest goal they can reach in life is to kill themselves while killing Jews?

And, what kind of religion is Islam if that is what it is teaching? The Quran, like the Bible has many different interpretations. As in Christianity’s interpretation of the Bible, the exact meaning of what Mohammad said in the Quran is left up to thousands of different interpretations. There is, however, a section in the Quran which states “But let there be amongst you traffic and trade by mutual good-will: nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful.” (Surat An-Nissaa 4:29-30). Many Muslims believe that suicide is a clear violation of that segment of their Scripture.

However, some Islamic writers overwhelm that rather weak argument against suicide by quoting other sections of the Quran. Some believe suicide is OK if one is:

a. Seeking for Martyrdom.

b. Hurting the enemy.

c. Encouraging Muslims.

d. Weakening the spirit of the enemy.

According to a December 1996 article in Nida’ul Islam magazine by Abu Ruqaiyah, what we in the West call a “suicide bomber” is a "martyrdom operation” which “refers to when the Mujahed (the one who fights for the cause of Allah) puts explosive materials in his car or encircles himself with, sneaks into the enemy land, then blows it up where he determines their harm, killing some of them and is killed as well.”

Today, many thousands of young children are being taught that their highest goal in life is to become a “martyr” for the glory of Allah. Bridges for Peace reports on their website a memorial rally for three children killed in 2001 in clashes with the Israeli Authorities. In the highlight of the rally, 15 children - all younger than 10 - staged a play about a suicide bombing in Israel, with the coaching of the adults. A boy was dressed as a suicide bomber, wearing a black face mask, green robe and a little package wrapped in tinfoil strapped to his belt, meant to symbolize explosives. His voice muffled by the mask, he led other children in chanting, "We die for the sake of Allah." Another boy slipped into a cardboard box with an Israeli flag on it and lay on the ground, symbolizing the aftermath of a suicide bombing. In another part of the program, a young girl listened to fiery speeches, her light brown curls brushing against a pistol. Another girl with a white head scarf shouted into a microphone: "Raise the flag of Holy War."

What we are watching is a massive return to a pagan practice of children being sacrificed to false Gods, which is what the Jews and their neighbors were arguing about 3,000 years ago. It was, in fact, the ancestors of the current Arab people who were idol worshipers. Molech was the god to whom ancestors of today’s Arabs sacrificed children by burning them to death. To Mohammad’s credit, he taught the Arabs to stop that kind of idol worship.

In the Old Testament the Book of Leviticus we learn: “Say to the people of Israel, Any man of the people of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who gives any of his children to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name.” Leviticus 20:2-3 Revised Standard Translation

Molech is back, folks. I am afraid he is now pretending to be Allah in some circles. And we think Colin Powell or General Zinni can negotiate a settlement with people who sacrifice their children to kill Jews?

Somehow, I don’t think so.

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Mary Mostert was writing professionally on political issues as a teen-ager in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1940s. In the 1960s, she wrote a weekly column for the Rochester Times Union, a Gannett paper and was one of 52 American women who attended the 17 Nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to ban testing of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere. She was a licensed building contractor for 29 years, as she raised her six children. She served an 18 month mission as Public Affairs Director for the Africa Area for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1990-91. In the 1990s she wrote a book, Coming Home, Families Can Stop the Unraveling of America, edited the Reagan Monthly Monitor and talk show host Michael Reagan’s Information Interchange for seven years. She now operates the website, Banner of Liberty.

Send the author an E mail at Mostert@ConservativeTruth.org.

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