“… what any mujahedeen woman wants”

Today’s Week in Review features and aritcle, Wanted: Jihadists to Marry Widows:

A snippet of news from a shadowy corner of Iraq: Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia recently issued a fatwa telling its fighters to marry the widows of those who have fallen.

This may seem odd or insignificant, but it is one of the rare grains of news to emerge publicly about the inner workings of the Iraqi offshoot of Al Qaeda. So terrorism experts and others have been picking it over, hoping for clues to the strength of this group, which remains a critical part of the Iraqi insurgency.

For one clue, they might look at the fact that this is something that’s been practiced by Hamas in the past.

One aspect of this phenomenon that’s featured in the article, is the perception of honor in these marriages:

Another fighter, Abu Muhammad al-Zaidi, said there might be as many as 315 such widows in Baquba, Diyala’s capital. Mr. Zaidi (also a nom de guerre) said he had three wives, including a Qaeda widow he married before the fatwa. He plans on marrying another soon, he said.

“There is nothing more honorable than getting married to the widow of a martyr from Al Qaeda, who spent most of his life fighting the disbelievers and the occupation,” he said.

Um Obada, a recently married widow who was using a nickname, said her first husband was killed in 2006 while attacking an American-Iraqi military patrol. She said she had struggled financially since then, and agreed to marry a week ago after meeting her new husband once.

“I found in him a character trait that serves Islam, and getting married again is not forbidden, so I accepted without knowing him previously,” she said. “He has good morals, he is patient and he is a mujahedeen, and that’s what any mujahedeen woman wants.”

But maybe there’s less selflessness than is being considered. Maybe the Al Qaeda’s recruiting is falling on hard times. Daniel Pipes has observed:

Convincing healthy individuals to blow themselves up is obviously not easy, but requires ideas and institutions.

Ideas, institutions … and incentives – like 72 virgins. Perhaps after years of sending young men off to die violently (and maybe take some infidels with them) with the promise of paradise in the next world, too many potential recruits are probably wondering if the promise of bliss in the afterlife is worth the cost of passing it up in this world. (Clearly this doesn’t apply to all the mujahedeen, such as the fellow who already has three wives, but to those who, in the past, were “married” to the cause.)

Crossposted on Yourish.