Pray For

Forced Suicide Bombers

My Marie Claire this month had a profoundly disturbing and depressing article about suicide bombers in Sri Lanka (the magazine itself was fairly disturbing and depressing overall, but I might post about that later.) The woman they interviewed had been caught the day before she planned to assassinate a Sri Lankan government official. Her story is horrible: raped at 7 by her father, she was ineligible for marriage because she was no longer a virgin. Her aunt and uncle gave her to the LTTE as a teenager to rid themselves of the burden she represented to them. In the Tiger camp, she was subjected to sleep deprivation, propaganda videos and other abuses until she volunteered to become a suicide bomber as a way out of her nightmare.

This week, whenever you hear the word "terrorism" pray for those who are unwilling participants. Pray for those who have no hope, who are so oppressed and ignorant that they do not have the moral capability of choosing not to do evil. Pray, too, for all those who are killed in the attacks.

PBS Frontline has more information about Tamil children taken to LIIE terrorist training camps and indoctrinated as suicide bombers.

The Terrorism Information Center discusses the characteristics of female suicide bombers, most of whom are pushed to the fringes of society and see suicide bombing as their only hope to "cleanse" or redeem themselves.

CNN reports some suicide bombers in Iraq have been found with legs or hands bound to the vehicles they're driving, or have had their entire families held hostage by extremists.

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thes 5, 17) With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. (Eph 6, 18) Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. (Phil 4, 6)

"Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours." (Mark 11 , 24)