By Andrew L. Jaffee

Zacarias Moussaoui has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole, a befitting end for a terrorist involved in the 911 atrocity, though his mother and France’s government may disagree. A death sentence — martyrdom — was what Moussaoui wanted. What better justice to let him sit in a solitary, maximum security cell for the rest of his life, ruminating over the fact that he failed. He’ll never be rewarded with automatic admission to paradise, nor will he receive the privileges “otherwise unattainable” to the rest of us poor non-martyrs:

…he escapes the examination in the grave by the “interrogating angels”; he does not need to pass through barzakh, the purgatory limbo; he receives the highest of ranks in paradise, sitting near the throne of God–Muhammad described the “house of martyrs,” dar al-shuhada’, as the most beautiful abode of paradise; on the Day of Judgment any wounds the martyr received in battle will shine and smell like musk; his death as a martyr frees him of all sin such that he does not require the intercession of the Prophet; he is purified by his act and so he alone is not washed before burial.

It is interesting, and very disgusting, to note the reactions to Moussaoui’s sentence by his mother and the French government. His mother showed no remorse for the 3,000 civilians, some of them Muslim, who were ruthlessly slaughtered on 911:

Moussaoui’s mother Aicha El Wafi, pressed for her country to intervene. “Now he is going to die in little doses,” she said. “He is going to live like a rat in a hole. What for? They are so cruel.”

Hmmm… We are cruel? Moussaoui received a trial by his peers who then spared his life. What kind of “trial” would he have received in Iran, Syria, or China? And the French government now wants Moussaoui to be transferred to the great republic:

France may ask the United States to allow September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to serve his life prison sentence in a French jail, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Do the French think we’ll persecute Moussaoui, or is this another attempt to placate/appease the angry Muslim world?

The judge who presided over Moussaoui’s trial and delivered his sentence put the icing on the cake, emphasizing his failure as a martyr. Judge Leonie Brinkema told Moussaoui’s that he would “die with a whimper.”

For his part, Moussaoui was unrepentent and antagonistic until the very end of the trial:

“God curse America, God save Osama Bin Laden. You’ll never get him.”

One consolation: Moussaoui will have enough time, even in a jail cell, to hear the news once Islamo-fascism is finally defeated.

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Related: United States, War Against Islamo-fascism

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