Muslim Suicide
From Jannah’s Promises to Suicide Bombings: How Islamic Preaching Fuels Targeted Attacks on Christians in Pakistan
AUG 20, 2025 11:00 AM
BY FARAZ PERVAIZ ROSHAN
Suicide is an act that, in one form or another, is seen in every
society. Over time, it has taken on new forms, and we can now see
several distinct types: Individual suicide, carried out due to personal
problems or mental pressure.
Collective suicide, when a group of people agree to end their lives together.
Suicide attacks, where the goal is not only to take one’s own life, but also to target others.
Let’s focus on suicide attacks. Looking at the psychology of suicide
bombers, most of Muslims firmly believe that this world is temporary,
the real life is in jannah, and there they will be rewarded. For men,
the reward is said to be hoors. Islamic scholars and imams, especially
mullahs, paint vivid pictures of “jannah” (جنّت), paradise, from their
pulpits that captivate listeners. For example, mullahs such as Maulana
Tariq Jamil repeatedly describe the physical features of the hoors (the
virgins of jannah). Virginal, beautiful, and pure, the hoors are of
fair complexion, with large eyes, big breasts and physical
attractiveness. They are tall, with well-formed bodies. They have
perpetual virginity and eternal youth.
The male believers will have “special relations” with them in paradise.
Young Muslim men hear these descriptions, get emotionally and
physically excited, and the path toward becoming a suicide bomber
doesn’t seem so difficult anymore. Such Islamic speeches act like a
drug: pleasant in the moment but dangerous in the long run, because
they create a craving for a fantasy world where the supposed shortcut
to wine and women is nothing but a suicide attack.
In Islam, strict restrictions are placed on sexual relations, while at
the same time, the imaginary hoors are described in great detail. This
contradiction breeds sexual frustration, pushing Muslim people toward
anxiety and restlessness. Then, when stories of jannah are narrated,
they feel like a breath of fresh air to the mind, creating fertile
ground for jihadist indoctrination.
In one interview, a failed Muslim female bomber was asked: since men
are promised hoors, what reward is promised to women? She replied that
women would receive an equal number of men, something that was absurd,
as nothing of the kind is stated in authoritative Islamic sources.
There is also a difference between suicide bombers in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Taliban often
provide financial support to the bomber’s family. In Afghanistan,
however, children are sometimes forced into suicide attacks. One Muslim
boy, only seven or eight years old, said in an interview that the
Taliban promised him money if he carried out an attack. He innocently
asked: “But when I die, what will I do with that money in the grave?”
If we look at the root causes, the main motive behind suicide attacks
has often been the pursuit of Islamic or nationalist supremacy, or the
creation of a separate state. In many places, Islamic teaching
emphasizes hostility toward other faiths. For example, the Quran says:
“O you who believe! Do not take Jews and Christians as your friends and
protectors. They are friends of one another. Whoever among you takes
them as friends will indeed become one of them.” (5:51)
Some major suicide attacks in history stand out: In 1945, Japanese
“Kamikaze” pilots crashed their planes into enemy ships during World
War II. These pilots were, of course, non-Muslims. Most suicide
attacks, however, believe that they are gaining a place in jannah.
In 1971, Pakistani pilot Rashid Minhas sacrificed his plane to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
On September 11, 2001, hijacked planes were used as weapons against the World Trade Center in the U.S.
On September 22, 2013, two Taliban suicide bombers attacked All Saints
Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 127 people and injuring more than
250. A twin suicide bombing, carried out by militants linked to the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed the lives of at least 127
people and left over 250 injured, shattering a sanctuary that had stood
as a symbol of interfaith harmony since 1883.
These examples show that while suicide attacks have been carried out
for different motives, but many of them share the same goals of
spreading the fear of Islam and inflicting harm on non-Muslims.
In today’s world, the suicide attack has become one of the most
effective tools of Islamic terrorism. The aim is not just to kill, but
to instill fear in ordinary people, so that they feel unsafe even in
their own communities.
It is important to understand that violence does not emerge suddenly.
It develops over years of mental conditioning into toxic Islam
ideologies, accompanied by social pressures. Some people are naturally
cold and detached, others antisocial. When such individuals are fed a
narrative filled with hatred, they become easy targets for jihad
groups. They are stripped of feelings such as guilt or remorse, and can
be turned into killers without hesitation.
Pakistan continues to be among the most religiously hostile countries
in the world. Religious minorities, including Christians, are often
targeted by jihadist groups, because they are perceived as foreigners.
Blasphemy laws, forced conversions, forced marriage and social
discrimination are only a few of the issues faced by the Christian
population of Pakistan.
A Calculated Atrocity
Within this context, the 2013 attack on All Saints Church in Peshawar
stands as a tragic reminder. Two suicide bombers claimed Christian
innocent lives and shattered the sense of safety within the Christians,
leaving behind a climate of fear and grief.
On the morning of September 23, 2013, while I was in prison arrested
under false charges by the FIA of Pakistan, who sought to silence my
Christian ministry, I read in the newspaper about a devastating suicide
bombing. The news broke my heart.
My friends and I were overwhelmed with pain and sorrow. That very day,
we made the firm decision to expose Islam and its role in spreading
violence and hatred.
Christians living in Peshawar, Pakistan are continuing to heal in the
wake of the September bombing of All Saints Church. Many are still
healing from the physical, mental and emotional scars left by the
bombing.
The assault occurred just after Sunday Service, as approximately 600
Christian worshippers gathered on the church’s front lawn for a meal.
Two suicide bombers, each carrying 6 kilograms of explosives in their
jackets, approached the church in Peshawar’s Kohati Gate area, a
sensitive locality home to multiple churches.
The first bomber detonated his device at the gate, killing one security
guard and wounding another, while the second breached the church
compound, exploding the explosives in his jacket among the church
congregation.
The blasts were devastating, leaving holes in the church’s walls,
shattering windows of nearby buildings, and scattering body parts
across the church lawn. The clock on the church wall stopped at 11:43
a.m., frozen at the moment of the carnage.
According to dishonest government reports, the attack killed at least
81 people, though the Diocese of Peshawar reported up to 127 confirmed
deaths.
Among the fatalities were 34 women, 7 children, and 40 men, as stated
by that time Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
Additionally, 131 people were wounded, with 37 children among them,
many in critical condition. The victims included choir members, Sunday
school children, and entire families who had come to worship and share.
“Even after tragedies like this, every Pakistani government hides the facts about the lives of Christians.”
The targeting of such a diverse group men, women, and children underscored the indiscriminate brutality of the attackers.
The Perpetrators and Their Motives
The Islamic group Jundallah, linked to the TTP, claimed responsibility
for the attack, declaring that Christians and other non-Muslims were
“enemies of Islam.”
They justified the massacre as retaliation for U.S. drone strikes in
Pakistan’s tribal regions, asserting that their targeting of Pakistani
Christians would “cause pain” to the United States, conflating local
Christians with Western nations in a perverse ideological leap.
The TTP, however, denied involvement, claiming their affiliate was
Jundul Hafsa, not Jundallah, highlighting the murky web of jihadist
factions operating in Pakistan.
Regardless of the group’s precise identity, the attack was a deliberate
assault on a vulnerable minority, exploiting their faith as a pretext
for violence.
A Pattern of Persecution
The All Saints Church bombing was not an isolated incident, but part of
a broader pattern of violence against Pakistan’s Christian minority,
who constituted just 1-2% of the country’s population of 180 million in
2013.
In March 2013, hundreds of Christians in Lahore’s Joseph Colony were
attacked over false blasphemy allegations, their homes burned by a mob.
On March 15, 2015, two suicide bombings by the Taliban splinter group
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar targeted St. John’s Catholic Church and Christ Church
in Youhanabad, Lahore, Pakistan, during Sunday services, killing at
least 15 people, including 7 Christian men, 3 Christian women, and 2
children, and wounding over 70 others, most of whom were Christians.
On March 27, 2016, another suicide bombing by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar again
targeted Christians. These Christians were celebrating Easter at
Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore, Pakistan. The attack killed at least 75
people, including 29 children, 7 women, and 34 men, and wounded over
340 others, with the majority of victims being women and children.
On December 17, 2017, two suicide bombers from the Islamic State
attacked Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, Pakistan, during a
Sunday service, killing at least nine people, including four women and
one child, and wounding over 50 others, with at least five women and
two children among the injured.
The government of Pakistan has consistently failed to protect its
Christian minority, as evidenced by the 2013 All Saints Church bombing
and subsequent attacks such as the 2015 Youhanabad church bombings, the
2016 Lahore Easter bombing, and the 2017 Quetta church attack, which
collectively killed over 180 Christians, including women and children,
and wounded hundreds more.
Despite Pakistan’s constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, the
state’s inability or unwillingness to curb jihadist groups such as the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, and the Islamic State,
coupled with inadequate security at vulnerable sites including
churches, reflects a systemic neglect of minority safety.
The use of blasphemy laws, forced conversions, rape and social
discrimination further exacerbate the plight of Christians, who face
relentless persecution in a nation ranked among the most religiously
hostile.
The government’s tepid response, marked by insufficient investigations,
failure to dismantle jihad networks, and lack of accountability for
security lapses underscores a profound failure to uphold its duty to
protect all citizens, leaving Christians to bear the enduring physical,
mental, and emotional scars of unchecked violence.
Islam will likely remain the greatest threat to Pakistani Christians
for the next hundred years or more. This is because most Pakistani
Muslims are kept educationally and intellectually deprived, as the
Islamic education system is largely controlled by jihadists who use it
to brainwash children and pass this poison on to future generations. As
a result, attacks on Christians in Pakistan will continue.