Posted by
Frigglesnitz on Thursday, October 12, 2006 9:40:47 PM
There is only one comment this writer could add regarding Suzanne Fields' moving column (October 12, 2006) on the story of Daniel Pearl in an upcoming HBO documentary ("The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl"). That is that, even though Omar Sheikh, "the jihadi who conspired in his murder," may have been educated, that does not necessarily mean he was civilized. In my opinion it merely means that he had the honor of having obtained an education.
Omar was obviously not just any everyday, ordinary, ignorant, poverty-stricken, illiterate jihadi butcher-in-training who eagerly looked forward to the day he could martyr himself.
No. He was too educated for that. Instead, no doubt he found willing, ordinary, ignorant, poverty-stricken, illiterate jihadist butchers to do the dirty work.
One cannot doubt even for a moment that Omar quakes when contemplating his own death as he sits on "death row" awaiting his hanging, and that to him life is worth grasping until all his appeals have been exhausted and he is gasping for his last breath. To all living beings, life is sweet.
One must wonder if the savagery and senselessness of Daniel Pearl's murder arouses the tiniest whisper of regret, sorrow or shame within a heart such as Omar's.
I wouldn't bet on it. First, the tiniest shred of humanity must exist.