“And, let’s face it, if the mothers ruled the world, there would be no (expletive) wars in the first place.” 

So declared Sally Field upon receiving her trophy for best actress in a drama series at the recent Emmy Awards.  To many, Field’s comment seemed charmingly idealistic -- reminiscent perhaps of Sheryl Crow’s proclamation in 2003 that “the best way to solve problems is not to have enemies.”  But politically astute observers should recognize Field’s remark as desperately inaccurate.  For in the fight against radical Islam, it is too often the mothers who are the problem. 

Consider Miriam Farahat, a Palestinian mother who has raised three sons to be homicide bombers for Hamas.  Known throughout Gaza as Um Nidal, or “the mother of the struggle,” Farahat is featured in a Hamas recruitment video telling one 17-year-old son to attack Israelis and telling him not to return. And Farahat -- who is now an elected member of the Hamas parliament -- says she is willing to sacrifice all her 10 sons to the war against Israel because “Israelis are not civilians and there are no prohibitions on killing them.”
 
Consider also Fatima Zak.  The pregnant mother of eight children was arrested along with her niece, a mother of four, in May by Israeli intelligence for planning a double homicide bombing. 

And how would Field explain last summer’s foiled British terror bombing plot, where one husband and wife team allegedly planned to hide a liquid bomb in their baby’s bottle to bring down an airliner en route from London?

Field’s naiveté is perhaps understandable.  After all, what sort of mother exploits her own children as tools of terror?  The answer lies in understanding a culture that embraces death in the cause of global Jihad.  As psychology professor Anne Speckhard has noted, there currently exists a “cult of martyrdom” in parts of the Muslim world.  Speckhard writes:

“From a very young age children are socialized into a group consciousness that honors ‘martyrs,’ including human bombers who have given their lives for the fight against what is perceived by Palestinians to be the unjust occupation of their lands. Young children are told stories of ‘martyrs.’ Many young people wear necklaces venerating particular ‘martyrs,’ posters decorate the walls of towns and rock and music videos extol the virtues of bombers.”

This “cult of martyrdom” even infects children’s cartoons.  One popular weekly Hamas TV show called “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” is co-hosted by an 11-year-old girl who aspires to be a homicide bomber.  The show encourages children to call in and recite poems with images of hate and violence.  And a Mickey Mouse look-alike instructs young viewers to fight the “Zionist Occupation” and even instructs boys and girls how to slay non-Muslims.  The giant mouse, called Farfour, has since been written out of the script—killed off by Israeli interrogators! 

Given the culture of terror and martyrdom that defines life for many Muslims, it is no wonder that Israeli military reports have detailed hundreds of cases of children involved in military attacks on Israelis.     

Of course, there’s an irony that’s been lost in the uproar over Ms. Field’s comments:  At the heart of some anti-Americanism is the belief that our country no longer exports the idea of liberty under God but instead, particularly through Hollywood culture, exports sexual license and moral relativism in our music and films.  Our cultural elites want to replace a “Shining City Upon a Hill” with a red light district, but if America is going to defeat an enemy who worships death, we are going to have to rediscover the God who told us to choose life.

In the end, while the bond that exists between a mother and child is the first and most essential and sacred of human ties, that bond shatters like glass when contaminated by an ideology that extols death as a blessing and preaches that to sacrifice one’s child for jihad is one of the holiest acts one can commit.  We must confront our enemy for the sake of our children and grandchildren, because, as cruel and tragic as war is, losing Western Civilization to this cruel enemy would be the worst tragedy of all.