The death of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas

To celebrate the death of any human being is distasteful, and every human being is worthy of respect even if their beliefs are horrific. I mourn the death of Yahya Sinwar while I celebrate the defeat of the ideas that motivated him.

Mr Sinwar was a man who suffered and turned to revenge as his savior. He spent 20 years in Israeli prisons. He became a student of Israel, he became a perfect Hebrew speaker. He had fierce determination. But his goal to destroy Israel was a hallucinatory dream.

To plan and carry out a hideous attack on his much more powerful and pitiless enemy was not a great idea. It set back his cause. His decisions caused the pointless death of thousands of babies, children, and woman. They might not have wanted to be martyrs to the insanity of Mr Sinwar. He made that decision for them. He laid waste to his country. He brought misery, hunger, pain, and tears to his people.

So although Mr Sinwar is not in paradise as he preached, it’s sad that he died at war with Israel. He could have been a peacemaker.

“The reward of an evil deed is its equivalent. But whoever pardons and seeks reconciliation, then their reward is with Allah. He does not like the wrongdoers.” (Qu’ran 42:40)