Beyond any reasonable doubt, the proposed pubic execution of terrorist murderer Nidal Malik Hasan is medieval. But there is a less-considered and potentially more important problem with the firing-squad punishment of a jihadist. In essence, fashioned as a livestreamed event, it will bring force-multiplying satisfactions to the terrorist and simultaneously incentivize jihadist terror against the United States.
In principle, at least, the ironies are plain. Though still not apparent to President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth, publicity surrounding the planned execution will confer the greatest possible gift to Nidal Malik Hasan. By sharing Hasan’s execution with literally millions of people all over the world, the US president is assuring would-be jihadi terrorists that any infliction of grievous harms on individual Americans or American institutions will be grandly rewarded. Prima facie, for “self-sacrificing" terrorist enemies, nothing could be more fulfilling than the publicity and eternal fame conferred by a US firing squad.
History can offer further clarifications. U.S. Army Major Hasan openly sought the death sentence for his killing spree at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. As he explained in open court, his dual motive was religion-based glory and derivative immortality: "If I die by lethal injection," proclaimed Hasan, “I would still be a martyr." Now expecting a martyr’s death by a firing squad - one that will even be livestreamed - this jihadist gratefully anticipates perpetual admiration and an immutable “power over death."
Further clarifications are in order. Trump and Hegseth have failed to understand the world from the jihadi terrorist’s point of view. In the final analysis, this ideologue accepts a martyr’s death with assurance that he will not “really" die. Though seemingly a contradiction in terms, such acceptance is actually consistent with the internal logic of “holy war." Significantly, this is the only form of logic that could have any tangible policy consequences.
There is more. Though generally unrecognized in the United States (and also Israel), the jihadist “sacrifices" himself or herself in order not to die. Fundamentally, at his or her existential core, this shahid is not meaningfully interested in statehood, land or justice. Instead, he plans to wreak violence against “unbelievers" and “apostates" to ensure that his individual life will never end. Accordingly, the calculating perpetrator’s expected “death" is never anything more than a transient inconvenience. In any final tally, it is merely an illuminating distraction.
In life, truth may sometimes emerge through paradox. As a current example, jihadist "martyrs" kill themselves in order not to die. Today, as the US prepares to execute Nidal Malik Hasan, there can be no more urgent truth.
While seemingly irrational, the martyr can still calculate rationally in jihadi terms and conclude that that his/her transient passing will be "gainful." This ecstasy-seeking terrorist is embarked on what is taken to be a divinely-guided trajectory. To the point, the jihadist has chosen a palpably glorious path to life everlasting. On every conceivable dimension, therefore, it presents as a perfect path.
In Islam, martyrdom has always been associated with terror-violence. Unequivocal invocations for sacrificial killing can be found in the Koran (9:111) and more explicitly in the canonical hadith. "Do not consider those who are slain in the cause of Allah as dead," instructs the Koran, "for they are living by their Lord."[1]
There are certain specific aspects of sacrificial terror that ought never to be overlooked or underestimated by the United States or Israel. The two-sided nature of terror violence - the sacrificial death of the ritually despised victim and the reciprocal death of the “martyr" - is clearly codified in the Charter of Hamas: "The Palestinian problem is a religious one, to be dealt with on this premise...`I swear by that (sic.) who holds in His Hands, the Soul of Muhammad! I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah! I will assault and kill, assault and kill, assault and kill.’"
There is more. In planning the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, US President Trump should look beyond superficial understandings. To wit, human death fear has a great deal to do with explaining and preventing jihadi terrorism. Though they would strenuously deny it, jihadists are animated by an overwhelming death fear. By their special definition, they seek to overcome an unbearable mortality by “killing themselves."
For them, it all makes perfectly good sense. For us, it is only their specific logic that will shape future terrorist attacks. In this connection, America now confronts steadily-expanding threats of unconventional war and unconventional terrorism. - threats heightened by Donald Trump’s war against Iran. Faced with dedicated opponents who are not only willing to die, but enthusiastically seek their own "deaths" via martyrdom, Washington should quickly recognize this adversary’s overriding search for “power over death."
In the end, to be countered effectively, jihadi acts of terror will need to be understood from the perpetrator’s point of view. Ironically, rather than be deterred by American threats of death, especially where they would involve widely-streamed executions, the jihadist will regard such threats as an incentive.
It follows from this counter-intuitive assessment that the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan will be more than self-defiling for Americans. Beyond any reasonable doubt, it will also render the United States and Israel more vulnerable to jihadi terror.
Louis René Beres, Emeritus Professor of International Law, was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971) and is the author of many books and journal articles dealing with international relations and international law. His publications, including many on the subject of terrorism, have appeared in The Harvard National Security Journal (Harvard Law School); International Security (Harvard University); The Atlantic; US News & World Report; JURIST; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence; Parameters: Journal of the U.S. Army War College (Pentagon); Special Warfare (Pentagon); Air-Space Operations Review (USAF); The War Room (Pentagon); Modern War Institute (West Point); Israel Defense (Tel Aviv); BESA Perspectives (Israel); INSS (Tel Aviv); Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. Professor Louis René Beres was born in Zürich at the end of World War II.
Notes:
[1] Says Sura 2:154: "Do not think that those who are killed in the way of Allah are dead, for indeed they are alive, even though you are not aware." See also: Qur'an, 3:157-8; 169-171; 44:56.