This story chilled me the core. With poor little Alan Kurdi lying face down on a beach on Turkey, the whole world paused - in prayer and in shock. I was shocked at the image, it seemed a game changer. How could this be allowed to happen?

Last week, a 7 year old girl wondered into a police station in Damascus. She said she was lost and scared. The police brought her into the police reception and it was there she exploded. It turned out she was wearing a concealed suicide belt. I saw photos of the aftermath - including the poor girl's head.. I have to admit I have not recovered from the image. Today a video emerged of the girl's Al Nusra affiliated father - lecturing the girls (the girl's sister too who is 9) on their mission and the plan. The girls are hugged by a woman in a burka and then the video ends.

For me this incident is the lowest and most bass act I have seen. The mainstream media did not feel the tragedy was worth pushing and in many cases even reporting, but for me - it sums up how nightmarish Syria has become.

I read this briefly today but didn't see (nor want to) any pictures. I did read that apparently it was deactivated by her mother via a remote control? How horrible.

I have the news always open in my browser. I didn't see this at all. What a horrible story.

I have to ask the obvious question - if you were so shocked and traumatised by the story, why did you decide to look at gruesome pictures of the aftermath?

And why do you continue to follow the story, if it apparently upsets you so much?

Curiosity and concern are one thing, but frankly you seem a little obsessed with this story, despite the fact it is apparently upsetting you.

Something just does not add up.

Please don't get me wrong, but I think you mean activated, if it had been DEactivated it wouldn't have worked.

I wonder if they had detonated and activated in their mind and couldn't decide which to use?

Either way, this was not a 7 year old suicide bomber, this was a 7 year old victim of terrorism.

Oh these moderate Syrian rebels. At it again.

Yes. They must have got fed up with distributing daffodils and singing jolly songs around campfires.

Probably just being playful and overexcited. We should send them more weapons and money and enforce a no fly zone so that they can get out more. Kids when they don't have freedom of movement can get techy and this sort of thing is bound to happen.

Apparently both the girls mother was the one in the video.
What kind of depraved person sends off kids into a suicide mission, never mind their own parents?
If the evil cow felt that strongly, perhaps she should have blown herself up.
This was murder...plain and simple. No religion in the world endorses this depravity. This is a mad cult, an epidemic sweeping across collecting up stupid, uneducated folk. The perpetrators are usually people who have never grown up with Islam around them. They're either converts, or born again Muslims. I doubt they pray 5 times a day, or know the basics of Islam. If they did, they wouldn't behave like rabid apes..that need to be put down. Their leader, has proclaimed himself the next Caliph, with is tantamount to blasphemy in Islam. The irony of these stupid disillusioned t**ts who think they're fighting Islam's corner, you're not... f**k right off.
Isn't it funny how these people ranting about taking up arms, are never the ones to do it themselves? It's always some young child or a crazed loner who's the one doing it.

You've got to wonder in situations like this whether the children involved are aware of what awaits them, and whether they genuinely are petrified themselves, but are doing as their parents instruct them too.

You've got to be an evil, cowardly person/parent to use a child this way though, and I hope some how, some way, those parents meet a long, painfully slow death for their actions. A bullet to their head would be too easy a way out for them.

The whole situation stinks though, and you're right, the media will only report on enough to get the public interest, but it's rare they'll post the really dark stuff (for that, you've got to go to very specific places on the internet). I think it's fair to say that a lot of people aren't nearly as aware of what is happening around the world. The middle-east is a mess.

It's a real shame (in instances like this) that there isn't a God that can't just come down from the clouds and smite evil. It's further a tragedy that with all we are capable of doing, this is allowed to happen. I get that it's difficult to stop, but if the world truly came together, it could be such a better place.

The children, at least the girl ones, must have a very low value. The Iranian Islamic regime used children as young as 12, as human mine-clearers during the Iran–Iraq War.

Yes of course, keep telling yourself that the murderers and terrorists are not REAL Muslims and that it has nothing at all to do with the religion.

These are of course just mentally unstable and uneducated people who only needed some sort of little push to make them lose the plot ...

I think you are confused. It's obviously martyrdom just like mowing down people and blowing yourself up is apparently martyrdom in the Islamic dictionary.

Which makes sense as murdering a family member is an honour killing.

I'm not sure if there is a new word for this like sacrifice but there probably is.


I almost feel like saying it's PC gone mad with renaming things but that would just make me old fashioned. Words change meaning over time and we just have to go with it.

Filiacide, and just like suicide, it's probably a fire of hell job according to their own religion.

In that case, I can't imagine they'd be religious at all..

Really, no. Killing your child is the same in Islam as it is in Christianity. It might be martyrdom to kill yourself for a cause, but to murder your own (or someone else's) child is still just murder. I'd guess that even a large percentage of actual terrorists think this is pretty low.

I think you are mistaken. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son to God. It can be a meritorious action in religious terms. Islam makes a lot of it. Lots of extra points for that kind of attitude.

It wouldn't be the first time a member of a religious group got things wrong.

Martyrdom isn't traditionally being prepared to kill yourself for a cause. It's certainly not being prepared to kill others for it. It's being prepared to be persecuted or die for a belief which is an entirely different thing.

I think you missed that distinction in my post and that changed it's meaning. That's why I said in the Islamic dictionary.

sick and depraved .......

Abraham being tested by God with a divine command was something completely different.

As far as I can tell, unless god makes an exception, it's fires of hell and no mistake. Islam makes a lot of not committing suicide.

They represent Islam in the same way savages like the NFLT, Anti Balaka and NSCN represent Christianity.

There isn't any level of depravity they don't sink to using.

Horrific, if true.

But has it been verified? Lots of Fake News and Syrian Propaganda knocking around.

I think the thing about martyrdom is that the martyr doesn't actually have the intention of killing themself, even though they might put themself, or even be put, into such a position, where they're unlikely to survive. If a martyr is killed for their religious belief then someone else has done the killing.

The twin towers attack, for example, would have been a straight forward suicidal and murderous attack.