Provocative
documentary tackles the question behind suicide killings
By Amanda Schuster
May 2006
Terrorism is a hot topic
in America and Europe today. Everyone is asking the same
questions: How should we respond to it? Should we be afraid
of it? What does it mean for our future? Pierre Rehov,
a French filmmaker, by no means purports to answer all
of these questions. He’s headed in the right direction,
though – Suicide Killers, his latest documentary,
approaches the problem of Islamic extremism in a way that
is very different from the typical Western approach. Interviews
with Rehov and his production partner Lisa Magnas reveal
their unsettling findings and educate us about the philosophy
that drives their work.
During the course of his work in the Middle East, Rehov
was drawn more and more toward suicide killers and the
reasons behind what they do. “The first step to a solution
is to understand what is going on, what we are dealing
with,” he says. He began to interview would-be suicide
bombers, as well as actual suicide bombers’ families and
victims. The more he learned about them, the more he became
convinced that it is essential for Europeans and Americans
to develop a zero tolerance attitude toward suicide killers.
Blaming
anyone but the killers themselves, Rehov says, is cowardice:
“Trying to find excuses [for] the enemy is a cowardly
attitude, and in a fight the coward always loses.” In
his film, Rehov attempts to uncover the deep-reaching
reasons behind suicide killings and reveals them for what
they are: acts of hatred and misery. In doing so, he hopes
to drive home the point that these are people that can
and should be held accountable for their actions, and
that Westerners shouldn’t be afraid to approach them as
such.
Attempting
to understand the thought processes behind violent Islamic
extremism is important, says Rehov. The terrorists’ way
of thinking is very simple, he says, as Islamic extremism
is based on the essential concepts of pure/impure and
honor/dishonor. Clearly, honor and purity are considered
good. However, since Jews, Americans and many other people
fall into the category of “impure” and “dishonorable,”
the mass murder of these groups, suicide bombers believe,
will undoubtedly result in plentiful rewards.
The
thing that Rehov found most striking, however, was that
suicide killing seemed to be largely what he calls “the
result of a high level of sexual frustration orchestrated
by a civilization which has been unable so far to choose
the path of freedom and lives mostly in fear.” He continues:
“God
is everywhere, in charge of everything, and one knows
that a great level of fear often [leads] to sacrifices.
So, I finally understood this very simple mechanism: a
“suicide killer” believes in sacrificing his own flesh,
which is temporary and impure, in order to get infinite
happiness and pleasure in the other life where his soul,
which is eternal and pure, will be rewarded for this great
sacrifice. Men, who mostly die virgins, get, among other
rewards, 72 female virgins.”
Curious,
Rehov asked a “sweet, naïve young terrorist” he met in
jail what her reward would be. Her answer? She
had hoped to become one of the 72 virgins, thinking she
would be the prettiest of them all. “In this repressive
society where sex is an absolute taboo, she had found
a simple idea to get laid by killing herself and innocent
people,” says Rehov. “This, for me, was the sum of all
absurdities I had to encounter.”
Such
absurdity is extremely discomforting, and it leaves those
who confront it wondering what can be done. That, it seems,
is exactly the question that Rehov hopes to provoke through
his film. Though Rehov and Magnas are still in negotiations
with distributors for their film, clips have aired on
all many major cable news stations, and the film has been
shown in its entirety to select audiences in America and
Europe. Magnas says that it has been received very well,
with their various audiences (Jewish, academic, secular,
etc.) amazed across the board. Their eyes were opened
to the magnitude of the problem, yet almost all responded
with the sense that “there is a light at the end of the
tunnel,” says Magnas.
For
more information and to view the trailer of the film,
visit Rehov’s website at
www.pierrerehov.com.
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