It seems that "those women and children we killed were suicide attacks" isn't a new excuse.

"It was not until 1903 that the sultan surrendered. Decisive pacification of Aceh was accomplished only after several leading ulamas were killed in battles between 1910 and 1912. A new revolt broke out on the west coast of Aceh from 1925 to 1927, costing 100 lives (Reid 2006b:103), and there were some other sporadic regional revolts. Decades after the collective provincial war ended, the Dutch continued to be afflicted with individual acts of jihad: ‘at least once a week on average’ there was a suicidal attack on a Dutchman by an individual Acehnese, the so-called ‘Aceh-mord’ (Reid 2006b:103). This was not a problem for the Dutch elsewhere in the East Indies colony. Alfian (2006:111–17) concluded that the Acehnese fighting spirit was inspired in part by a set of poetic tales called the Hikayat Perang Sabil, which was usually read before going onto the battlefield. Among other things, it promised everlasting happiness for martyrs, delicious food, eternal marriage of martyrs to 72 beautiful angels and forgiveness by God of all the sins of 70 family members of the martyr. Alfian (2006:113) concludes that the defiant Acehnese identity nurtured by these poetic tales helps account for the large numbers of suicidal attacks on Dutch forces during the war by women and children, 700 of whom were killed in battle in 1904 alone, according to Dutch sources."

https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p19121/pdf/ch0617.pdf

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#SuicideAttacks #WomenAndChildren #colonialism #DutchEastIndies #IsraelWarCrimes #terrorism #martydom #IslamophobicTropes #Islamophobia #Tropes #tropesofhate #Notes