The contrasting lives of Reem Saleh Riyashi and Irshad Manji inspired this writer to get carried away inserting three movie titles in one headline.
Riyashi's death represents Islam at its most insane level. Manji's life represents sensibility among Muslims. They will probably never meet even in death. For those with strong enough religious beliefs, Riyashi had nowhere else to go but down. If Manji maintains her present course, she will be admitted to heaven whenever she leaves this earth.
However, both women were victimized by Islamic extremism. Riyashi was a prisoner of her culture to the very last, while Manji has essentially freed herself of Islamic rigidity by searching for a form of Islam that respects its women, rejects anti-Semitism and other prejudices and relates to other religions and cultures.
Riyashi was the 22-year-old mother of two young children who detonated a bomb near the Erez crossing at the border between Gaza and Israel on January 14, killing herself and four Israeli security officers and wounding 12 other people. While not the first female genocide bomber, she has the distinction of being the first mother to serve in that capacity for a terrorist organization, in this case Hamas. Maybe she made some chicken soup for her kids before leaving for her assignment.
According to The Washington Post, Riyashi proclaimed in a videotape she taped earlier: "I have two children and love them very much. But my love to see God was stronger than my love for my children, and I'm sure that God will take care of them if I become a martyr."
Maybe "God will take care of them" by having them adopted by a normal family.
She loved her children so much that she orphaned them and put her family in danger of losing their home to Israeli demolition. This also meant severe restrictions on ordinary Gazans seeking entry to Israel for jobs.
Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin explained, "Women are like the reserve army ? when there is a necessity, we use them. Today we needed her because there are a lot of problems for a man to reach out to Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza."
Ingenious strategy, to be sure, but to regard women as "reserves" shows he clearly views women as second-class citizens. If that's his attitude, why should the average Palestinian woman join the cause? Where is the appreciation?
The plot sickens further. Israeli officials told The New York Post's Uri Dan that she committed this genocidal act after she was discovered having an extra-marital affair. She knew that under strict Islamic customs she would killed for cheating because it dishonored her family, so becoming a genocide bomber would surely restore her family's honor.
It sounds like she must have been under horrendous pressure. However, if she was such a prisoner of her culture, why didn't she surrender to Israeli authorities and warn them of what she was expected to do?
Irshad Manji offers a refreshing contrast to Riyashi. The 35-year-old Canadian fled with her family from Uganda to Canada in 1972, where her father insisted on obedience and frequently became violent, according to a profile in The Washington Post. She said her father once chased her with a knife.
On her Website, Manji recalled the night and day differences between her public school and the madrassa, a Muslim school she attended. She was expelled from the madrassa at age 14 after asking her teacher for proof that the prophet Muhammad commanded his army to kill an entire Jewish tribe.
She remains a Muslim, but she has been searching for a better kind of Islam than that which she experienced as a child. She authored a book titled The Trouble With Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change. In her book, she calls for an end to anti-Semitism and human rights violations committed against women and religious minorities on behalf of Islam.
"I refuse to join an army of automatons in the name of Allah," she told The Washington Post. "Why are we being held hostage by what's happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis? What's with the stubborn streak of anti-Semitism in Islam? Who is the real colonizer of Muslims ? America or Arabia?"
There are probably many moderate Muslims in North America and the Arab world who don't agree with the extremists. I use the word "apparently" because the Muslim world is such a closed and confusing society that it is impossible to quantify the proportion of moderates against the extremists.
However, Manji is one of the few to speak out. Hopefully, it is not a matter of too little, too late.
Riyashi's death represents Islam at its most insane level. Manji's life represents sensibility among Muslims. They will probably never meet even in death. For those with strong enough religious beliefs, Riyashi had nowhere else to go but down. If Manji maintains her present course, she will be admitted to heaven whenever she leaves this earth.
However, both women were victimized by Islamic extremism. Riyashi was a prisoner of her culture to the very last, while Manji has essentially freed herself of Islamic rigidity by searching for a form of Islam that respects its women, rejects anti-Semitism and other prejudices and relates to other religions and cultures.
Riyashi was the 22-year-old mother of two young children who detonated a bomb near the Erez crossing at the border between Gaza and Israel on January 14, killing herself and four Israeli security officers and wounding 12 other people. While not the first female genocide bomber, she has the distinction of being the first mother to serve in that capacity for a terrorist organization, in this case Hamas. Maybe she made some chicken soup for her kids before leaving for her assignment.
According to The Washington Post, Riyashi proclaimed in a videotape she taped earlier: "I have two children and love them very much. But my love to see God was stronger than my love for my children, and I'm sure that God will take care of them if I become a martyr."
Maybe "God will take care of them" by having them adopted by a normal family.
She loved her children so much that she orphaned them and put her family in danger of losing their home to Israeli demolition. This also meant severe restrictions on ordinary Gazans seeking entry to Israel for jobs.
Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin explained, "Women are like the reserve army ? when there is a necessity, we use them. Today we needed her because there are a lot of problems for a man to reach out to Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza."
Ingenious strategy, to be sure, but to regard women as "reserves" shows he clearly views women as second-class citizens. If that's his attitude, why should the average Palestinian woman join the cause? Where is the appreciation?
The plot sickens further. Israeli officials told The New York Post's Uri Dan that she committed this genocidal act after she was discovered having an extra-marital affair. She knew that under strict Islamic customs she would killed for cheating because it dishonored her family, so becoming a genocide bomber would surely restore her family's honor.
It sounds like she must have been under horrendous pressure. However, if she was such a prisoner of her culture, why didn't she surrender to Israeli authorities and warn them of what she was expected to do?
Irshad Manji offers a refreshing contrast to Riyashi. The 35-year-old Canadian fled with her family from Uganda to Canada in 1972, where her father insisted on obedience and frequently became violent, according to a profile in The Washington Post. She said her father once chased her with a knife.
On her Website, Manji recalled the night and day differences between her public school and the madrassa, a Muslim school she attended. She was expelled from the madrassa at age 14 after asking her teacher for proof that the prophet Muhammad commanded his army to kill an entire Jewish tribe.
She remains a Muslim, but she has been searching for a better kind of Islam than that which she experienced as a child. She authored a book titled The Trouble With Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change. In her book, she calls for an end to anti-Semitism and human rights violations committed against women and religious minorities on behalf of Islam.
"I refuse to join an army of automatons in the name of Allah," she told The Washington Post. "Why are we being held hostage by what's happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis? What's with the stubborn streak of anti-Semitism in Islam? Who is the real colonizer of Muslims ? America or Arabia?"
There are probably many moderate Muslims in North America and the Arab world who don't agree with the extremists. I use the word "apparently" because the Muslim world is such a closed and confusing society that it is impossible to quantify the proportion of moderates against the extremists.
However, Manji is one of the few to speak out. Hopefully, it is not a matter of too little, too late.