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Ancient Passages
In the Muslim world today, many adults and children have no concept of
their own birthday. Their identity derives from their relationships within
a family group and personal distinctives such as birthdays are meaningless.
Military historian Victor Davis Hanson notes in "Carnage and Culture"
that at the battle of Salamis, five centuries before Christ and more than
1,000 years before the birth of Islam, 40,000 Persian sailors drowned
within sight of land, most because they had not been trained to swim.
King Xerxes watched from a hilltop as his fleet, largely comprised of
conscripts from conquered territories, sank to the bottom of the Aegean.
The vastly outnumbered but victorious Greeks suffered many fewer casualties.
Not only could they swim, the rank and file had input in operational matters.
Even victorious Greek generals were censored, and worse, for failing to
take proper care of their men in battle. Individuals mattered.
Seen in this context, Islam is an expression, rather than the genesis,
of identity framed in the collective rather than the individual, the attitude
cultural rather than religious. A suicide attack becomes the ultimate
expression of fealty to sovereign and tribe, and denial of self. Islamic
martyrdom provides the catapult to glory, where the believer may indulge
the appetites denied in life, satisfying his individual heart's desires.
Ed Fowler
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(c) 2002 Millennium Relief & Development Services, vol. 2 no. 20
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