Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, Managing Director of Al-Arabiya TV comments on the growing unpopularity of ’suicide bombings’ as a tactic to sway public opinion. Throughout the Arab world, he writes, with the glaring exception of Egypt, suicide bombings are increasingly seen as an immoral tactic. While he says that these acts are always immoral, there’s still the sad fact that the drop in their popularity comes only after Arabs and Muslims became the targets of the killers. Let’s hope that the public learns that they are immoral and despicable no matter who is targeted.

Are Suicide Operations Losing their Mass Appeal?
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

Why are Suicide operations no longer a cause for admiration and awe among those that are usually indignant?

The answer is that the same propaganda weapon that the Al-Qaeda organization used has turned against it. The Al-Qaeda used to promote their explosive-laden heroes as they read their last will and testament and smiled to the cameras. After their operations multiplied, the pictures of these victims – children, women, and elderly – became popular on every road on which their vehicles passed and exploded. Without the need for a survey, we can say that only a few continue to support suicide-operations, I mean among the Muslims in whose name these operations and used and justified.

The figures shown in the latest scientific study confirm the results of previous surveys. They show a continuous and consistent drop in all the Muslim countries with the exception of Egypt where, according to the study, support for such operations rose 5% over last year. This may be related to the fact that a certain sector of the Egyptian media insist on promoting so-called martyrdom-seeking operations. It seems that they are living on an island separated from the rest of the Muslim world. It seems that they do not realize that the overwhelming majority of the victims of terrorism are civilians and Muslims as well.
…