Interview with Pierre Rehov, French filmaker on Intifada
MSNBC
15 Aug 2006
One of the guests was Pierre Rehov, a French filmmaker who has
filmed six documentaries on the intifada by going undercover in the
Palestinian areas.
Pierre's upcoming film, "Suicide Killers," is based on interviews
that he conducted with the families of suicide bombers and would-be
bombers in an attempt to find out why they do it. Pierre agreed to a
request for a Q&A interview here about his work on the new film.
Q - What inspired you to produce "Suicide Killers," your seventh
film?
A - I started working with victims of suicide attacks to make a
film on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) when I became fascinated
with the personalities of those who had committed those crimes, as
they were described again and again by their victims. Especially
the fact that suicide bombers are all smiling one second before they
blow themselves up.
Q - Why is this film especially important?
A - People don't understand the devastating culture behind this
unbelievable phenomenon. My film is not politically correct because it
addresses the real problem, showing the real face of Islam. It points
the finger against a culture of hatred in which the uneducated are
brainwashed to a level where their only solution in life becomes to
kill themselves and kill others in the name of a God whose word,
as transmitted by other men, has become their only certitude.
Q - What insights did you gain from making this film? What do you
know that other experts do not know?
A - I came to the conclusion that we are facing a neurosis at the
level of an entire civilization. Most neuroses have in common a dramatic event,
Generally linked to an unacceptable sexual behaviour. In this case, we are
talking of kids living all their lives in pure frustration, with no opportunity to
experience sex, love, tenderness or even understanding from the opposite sex.
The separation between men and women in Islam is absolute. So is contempt
toward women, who are totally dominated by men. This leads to a situation of
pure anxiety, in which normal behaviour is not possible. It is no coincidence
that suicide killers are mostly young men dominated subconsciously by an
overwhelming libido that they not only cannot satisfy but are afraid of,
as if it is the work of the devil.
Since Islam describes heaven as a place where everything on Earth
will finally be allowed, and promises 72 virgins to those frustrated kids,
killing others and killing themselves to reach this redemption becomes
their only solution.
Q - What was it like to interview would-be suicide bombers, their
families and survivors of suicide bombings?
A - It was a fascinating and a terrifying experience. You are dealing
with seemingly normal people with very nice manners who have their own
logic, which to a certain extent can make sense since they are so
convinced that what they say is true. It is like dealing with pure
craziness, like interviewing people in an asylum, since what they say,
is for them, the absolute truth. I hear a mother saying "Thank God,
my son is dead." Her son had became a shaheed, a martyr, which for
her was a greater source of pride than if he had became an engineer, a
doctor or a winner of the Nobel Prize.
This system of values works completely backwards since their interpretation
of Islam worships death much more than life. You are facing people whose
only dream, only achievement goal is to fulfill what they believe to be
their destiny, namely to be a Shaheed or the family of a shaheed.
They don't see the innocent being killed, they only see the impure
that they have to destroy.
Q - You say suicide bombers experience a moment of absolute power,
beyond punishment. Is death the ultimate power?
A - Not death as an end, but death as a door opener to the after life.
They are seeking the reward that God has promised them. They work for God,
the ultimate authority, above all human laws. They therefore experience this
single delusional second of absolute power, where nothing bad can ever
happen to them, since they become God's sword.
Q - Is there a suicide bomber personality profile? Describe the
psychopathology.
A - Generally kids between 15 and 25 bearing a lot of complexes,
generally inferiority complexes. They must have been fed with religion.
They usually have a lack of developed personality. Usually they are
impressionable idealists. In the western world they would easily
have become drug addicts, but not criminals.
Interestingly, they are not criminals since they don't see good and
evil the same way that we do. If they had been raised in an Occidental
culture, they would have hated violence. But they constantly battle
against their own death anxiety. The only solution to this deep-seated
pathology is to be willing to die and be rewarded in the afterlife in Paradise.
Q - Are suicide bombers principally motivated by religious conviction?
A - Yes, it is their only conviction. They don't act to gain a
territory or to find freedom or even dignity. They only follow Allah,
the supreme judge, and what He tells them to do.
Q - Do all Muslims interpret jihad and martyrdom in the same way?
A - All Muslim believers believe that, ultimately, Islam will prevail
on earth.
They believe this is the only true religion and there is no room, in
their mind, for interpretation. The main difference between moderate
Muslims and extremists is that moderate Muslims don't think they
will see the absolute victory of Islam during their lifetime, therefore
they respect other beliefs. The extremists believe that the fulfillment
of the Prophecy of Islam and ruling the entire world as described in
the Koran, is for today. Each victory of Bin Laden convinces 20 million
moderate Muslims to become extremists.
Q - Describe the culture that manufactures suicide bombers.
A - Oppression, lack of freedom, brain washing, organized poverty,
placing God in charge of daily life, total separation between men and women,
forbidding sex, giving women no power whatsoever, and placing men in
charge of family honour, which is mainly connected to their women's behaviour.
Q - What socio-economic forces support the perpetuation of suicide bombings?
A - Muslim charity is usually a cover for supporting terrorist organizations.
But one has also to look at countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and
Iran, which are also supporting the same organizations through different
networks. The ironic thing in the case of Palestinian suicide bombers is
that most of the money comes through financial support from the Western
world, donated to a culture that utterly hates and rejects the West (mainly
symbolized by Israel).
Q - Is there a financial support network for the families of the
suicide bombers? If so, who is paying them and how does that affect the
decision?
A - There used to be a financial incentive in the days of Saddam Hussein
($25,000 per family) and Yasser Arafat (smaller amounts), but these
days are gone. It is a mistake to believe that these families would
Sacrifice their children for money. Although, the children themselves
who are very attached to their families, might find in this financial
support another reason to become suicide bombers. It is like buying
a life insurance policy and then committing suicide.
Q - Why are so many suicide bombers young men?
A - As discussed above, libido is paramount. Also ego, because this
is a sure way to become a hero. The shaheed are the cowboys or the
firemen of Islam. Shaheed is a positively reinforced value in this
culture. And what kid has never dreamed of becoming a cowboy
or a fireman?
Q - What role does the U.N. play in the terrorist equation?
A - The U.N. is in the hands of Arab countries and third world or
ex-communist countries. Their hands are tied. The U.N. has condemned Israel more
than any other country in the world, including the regime of Castro, Idi Amin
or Kaddahfi. By behaving this way, the U.N. leaves a door open by not
openly condemning terrorist organizations. In addition, through UNRWA, the
U.N. is directly tied to terror organizations such as Hamas, representing
65 percent of their apparatus in the so-called Palestinian refugee camps.
As a support to Arab countries, the U.N. has maintained Palestinians in camps
with the hope to "return" into Israel for more than 50 years, therefore making it
impossible to settle those populations, which still live in deplorable conditions.
Four hundred million dollars are spent every year, mainly financed by U.S.
taxes, to support 23,000 employees of UNRWA, many of whom belong to terrorist
organizations (see Congressman Eric Cantor on this subject, and in my
film "Hostages of Hatred").
Q - You say that a suicide bomber is a 'stupid bomb and a smart bomb'
simultaneously. Explain what you mean.
A - Unlike an electronic device, a suicide killer has until the last
second the capacity to change his mind. In reality, he is nothing
but a platform representing interests which are not his, but he
doesn't know it.
Q - How can we put an end to the madness of suicide bombings and
terrorism in general?
A - Stop being politically correct and stop believing that this
culture is a victim of ours. Radical Islamism today is nothing but a
new form of Nazism.
Nobody was trying to justify or excuse Hitler in the 1930s. We had to
defeat him in order to make peace one day with the German people.
Q - Are these men travelling outside their native areas in large numbers?
Based on your research, would you predict that we are beginning to see a
new wave of suicide bombings outside the Middle East?
A - Every successful terror attack is considered a victory by the
radical Islamists. Everywhere Islam expands there is regional conflict.
Right now, there are thousands of candidates for martyrdom lining up
in training camps in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Inside Europe,
hundreds of illegal mosques are preparing the next step of brain washing
to lost young men who cannot find a satisfying identity in the Occidental
world. Israel is much more prepared for this than the rest of the world
will ever be. Yes, there will be more suicide killings in Europe and the U.S.
Sadly, this is only the beginning.
Editor,
Islam-watch.org