Pardon for child 'suicide bomber'

[wilberhum]

I thought this was really interesting. Hope you do too.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapc...eut/index.html
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan, caught while on a mission to blow up an Afghan provincial governor, was pardoned on Sunday by President Hamid Karzai.
Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies have launched a wave of suicide attacks against Afghan, NATO and U.S.-led forces in the last two years, seeking to show the government and its Western allies are incapable of providing security.
Most of the victims are Afghan civilians.
The first whiskers of a moustache on his top lip, Rafiqullah stood to one side of the Afghan president, his father, with a full beard, stood to the other, at a ceremony in the capital on Sunday.
Rafiqullah's father, a poor tradesman from South Waziristan in Pakistan, had sent his son to a religious school, or madrassa, to learn the Koran. Later, when he asked where his son was, the teachers there brushed him off, he said.
Then last month, the 14-year-old was caught wearing a suicide vest on a motorbike in the eastern Afghan city of Khost.
"Today we are facing a hard fact, that is a Muslim child was sent to madrassa to learn Islamic subjects, but the enemies of Afghanistan misled him towards suicide and prepared him to die and kill," Karzai told reporters, his arm on the boy's shoulder.
The boy and father bowed their heads as Karzai spoke.
"His family thought their child was learning Islamic studies. That is not his fault, nor his father's, the enemies of Islam wanted him to destroy his life and those of other Muslims. I pardon him and wish him a good life," the president said.
"You are now free and forgiven by the people of Afghanistan," he said turning to the boy and smiling.
Walking to the gates of the presidential palace with his father, Rafiqullah said: "I am very happy that I am pardoned and released."
Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of harboring Taliban and al Qaeda militants and trying to destabilize its neighbor, a charge the Islamabad government denies.
Kabul officials say many of the suicide bombers and Taliban fighters are recruited from impressionable youths in Pakistan's madrassas and sent across the border to kill.
Asked if he had a message for Pakistan, Karzai said: "I have a message, it is a message of peace, forgiveness, a message pleading for better relationships, not cheating the children and encouraging them into terrorism and suicide."

[MTAFFI]

It is sad that these people use young impressionable youth to die for their sick cause, this reminds me of the new deal going on in Palestine right now, where they martyred Mickey mouse look alike only to replace him with a killer bee.

This is definitely not islamic (or at least I wouldnt think it was)

[Keltoi]

Children are often used by third world groups. Just look at Africa. Sad situation.

[AmarFaisal]

It's a good move by the Afghanistan President. Over the years I have always felt that Pakistan has been nice to Afghanistan and it's refugees. But in return Afghanistan has always blamed Pakistan for many things.

[wilberhum]

Wouldn't you really like to know where the boy was, how long he was gone, and why the teachers brushed the father off?

[snakelegs]

"His family thought their child was learning Islamic studies. That is not his fault, nor his father's, the enemies of Islam wanted him to destroy his life and those of other Muslims. I pardon him and wish him a good life," the president said.
"You are now free and forgiven by the people of Afghanistan," he said turning to the boy and smiling.

good for president karzai! a lot of these kids (and their parents as well) are victims too - of poverty.