Suicide

“Suicide Bombing, the verstehen approach”

In order to take a verstehen approach on suicide bombing, one must understand the concept of verstehen.

Verstehen is an interpretive understanding introduced by Max Weber and Georg Simmel into the individual social sciences, where it has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture relates to an indigenous people or sub-cultural group on their own terms and from their own point-of-view, rather than interpreting them in terms of his or her own concepts. Verstehen can mean either a kind of empathic or participatory understanding of social phenomena. In anthropological terms this is sometimes described as cultural relativism. In sociology it is an aspect of the comparative-historical approach.

The approach can be further explained by viewing others analysis and theories on suicide.

“According to Emile Durkheim there are two major causes of suicide: social integration and social regulation” (Thio 159). Social integration entails the individual(s) joining a group or society which carries a code of conduct demanding extreme dedication upon determination of the attachments strength, such as churches, family, or civil groups. Social regulation occurs when the person is controlled or restrained by the group or society he or she belongs to. Social integration and social regulation are measured by balance; when there is too little or too much social integration and social regulation, the person will kill him or herself, or commit suicide. Durkheim describes four types of suicide, “(1) egoistic suicide, too little social integration; (2) altruistic suicide, too much social integration; (3) anomic suicide, too little social regulation; (4) fatalistic suicide; too much regulation”(Thio 159).

Under traditional Islamic holy law, suicide is forbidden. Prophet Mohammad, (the inspiration to the Islamic religion) punishment for suicide is eternal repetition of how the suicidal died. According to Islam’s jihad, “a description of violence against the enemies of the Muslim community”