In Western culture the phrase “Women and Children first” means that in a disaster it is women and children who are rescued first. We value our children and their mothers and want to protect them from danger.

Many years ago when all the trouble with the Muslims began, I made the comment that in Islam women walk ten paces behind men except in minefields. I was decrying the lack of equal rights for women in the Arab world. It was a throwaway line, a flippant aside, which I could never imagine would actually happen. However, only today another female suicide bomber has killed her fellow Muslims in Iraq.

So what is being reported now by a U.N observer is no longer surprising. Not only are women being used on suicide missions, but so are children. They have become the weapon of choice because security is less suspicious of women and children. According to the Agence-France-Presse, a special rep from the U.N reported that Iraqi children are being recruited as suicide bombers by militias and insurgents. They are being held in compounds until they can be sent to blow themselves up for the cause. U.N official, Radhika Coomaraswamy has called on religious, political and military leaders to protect children.

We have already viewed videos of Palestinian children being systematically brainwashed into blowing themselves up. The mothers of these children say that they are proud to sacrifice them. The fathers say that they will continue to produce more children for martyrdom. The children, of course, have no say.

It is impossible to understand such fanaticism which goes against a parent’s normal instinct to protect the children he has brought into this world. No cause can legitimise such monstrous cruelty. If dehumanising yourself is what it takes, then surely it’s not worth it. The tragedy of it all is that some Muslims believe it is.