“Pay for Slay” — Rewarding Islamic Terrorism

“We love death as you love life.” This mantra sounds from the ranks of Hamas, ISIS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and many other Muslim radical groups.

As far as I can tell, the boast seems traceable back to the time of Caliph ‘Umar, who in 636 AD ordered his commander Sa’d, when facing a general from the infidel Sassanid (Persian) Empire, to invite the Persians to submit to Islam with the warning, “If you don’t [convert to Islam], you should know that I have come to you with an army of men that love death, as you love life.” (The whole story of the Battle of Qadisiyya is told in lurid and fanciful detail by the Muslim historian Tabari in volume twelve of his massive History of the Prophets and Kings.)

It has been echoed in modern times by Osama bin Laden, who wrote in his fatwa, Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places, “These youths [his jihadi trainees] love death as you love life.” And again, “Our youth are different from your soldiers. Your problem will be how to convince your troops to fight, while our problem will be how to restrain our youth to wait for their turn in fighting and in operations.” Why? Because these soldiers of Islam “…have no intention but to enter Paradise by killing you.”

Bin Laden did not come up with this idea out of thin air. The Qur’an and Islamic traditions are full of the alluring promises of Paradise for those who are martyred while pursuing violent jihad against the infidel world. In 9.111 of the Qur’an, Allah strikes a bargain with Muslims:

“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah? So rejoice in your transaction which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great attainment.”

An illuminating account in the Hadith traditions (told multiple times in numerous locations) shows Muhammad stirring his warriors to battle by promising them immediate gratification in Paradise should they be slain in carrying out “jihad in the way of Allah.”

“Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, stimulated people for jihad [emphasis mine] and mentioned the Garden. One of the Ansar [a Muslim from Medina] was eating some dates in his hand, and said, ‘Am I so desirous of this world that I should sit until I finish them?” He threw aside what was in his hand and took his sword, and fought until he was slain’” (Muwatta Malik, 21.42).

This Islamic fixation on martyrdom has not been lost on Palestinian leadership, which since the 1960s had established a “martyrs’ fund” to reward families of those Palestinians who died in the attempt to kill Israelis. As international financial support increased to the Palestinian Authority through the UN and direct foreign aid, the scope and magnitude of payments increased, not only covering families with monthly lifetime stipends but also to Palestinians arrested and imprisoned while fighting or resisting Israeli forces.

Today, of the roughly $600 million budgeted by the Palestinian Authority for “welfare”, about 60% goes to martyr and prisoner support, and the rest to care for its people in need. It has been dubbed “Pay for Slay,” and certainly seems geared toward rewarding those who engage in violence against Israelis. Indeed, its pay scale is linked to bloodshed: the deadlier the attack, the more lucrative the reward. Families of martyrs as of 2023 receive a one-time grant of $1500 and then a $1400/mo. stipend for life. Those incarcerated in Israeli prisons are promised monthly “salaries” for life, determined by the length of their sentences. Those serving less than three years receive $400 per month. A sentence of up to five years results in a $570 monthly income. Those incarcerated for up to ten years garner a salary of $1142. Any serving thirty or more years rake in $3429 each month. This does not include occasional extra grants provided by the PA or its ancillary arms.

Prior to the October 7^th Hamas attacks on Israel, the Pay for Slay program distributed over $300 million annually to those having engaged in violence against Israel. After the massacre, the Palestinian Authority, ruling over the West Bank (not Gaza) announced that all those killed or captured by Israel in response to the Hamas carnage would be covered by its largesse under Pay for Slay. Over the last three months, that has added roughly $2.8 million in additional payments which will continue for decades.

Of course, in the minds of Muslim Palestinians, these recipients are not viewed as terrorists and criminals, but as freedom-fighters and martyrs in Allah’s cause. They are lionized. Their mothers burst with pride over their sacrifices and the heavenly rewards they are now reaping. Impassioned parades are conducted in their hometowns. Streets are renamed after these martyrs. Sermons are preached at the Friday noon mosque services exalting them, declaring how Allah honors them, and exhorting listeners to follow in their footsteps. Smug Muslim media commentators wax eloquent over how the Muslim world will eradicate Israel from the face of the earth because “We love death more than you [Israelis] love life!”

Given the fact that the majority of young Palestinian men live in rather sordid circumstances with little chance of attaining the dreams regularly entertained by their peers in Western culture, the fantasy of dying as a martyr and entering a paradise filled with a harem of 72 comely virgins reserved just for his sexual delight, surrounded by tables filled with gastronomic delights and rivers flowing with pure water, milk, honey and wine, lounging on soft beds of moss while shaded by beautiful trees under mild sunshine, with young boys at his beck and call as gofers, is tantalizing.

It’s no surprise that Islam, in the eyes of many Muslims as well as infidels, functions as a “martyrdom cult.” There is no doubt that its authoritative writings portray Muhammad as the mouthpiece of Allah who “stimulated people for jihad,” who taught that in Allah’s eyes there was no act that equals jihad in honor and value, and who promised that unlike the average human being had no assurance of Allah’s mercy, those who “killed and were killed” for the cause of Allah were guaranteed the key to Paradise immediately upon death.

This mindset will continue to fuel the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as the larger jihad wars against all infidels, until the end of time, or until Islam succeeds in its plan of world conquest, unless somehow the Muslim world decides to reform its understanding of jihad as warfare against all who stand in the way of its supremacist goals. This would demand a fundamental reworking of its core theology, as well as a jettisoning of scores of passages in the Qur’an and even more in the Hadith that command warfare. It would also require a total overhaul of the portrayal of Muhammad, the Warrior-Prophet, whose martial success over the infidel world is a matter of great honor and reverence.

Could it happen? Perhaps. But not without gutting the heart of Islam and remaking it into something that Muhammad (and Allah) never intended. The majority of Muslims will never stand for that.