A mother describes the choice offered to her by Muslim terrorists during the seizure of Middle School 1 in Russia last year. Link. Excerpt:
She cannot explain exactly why one of the hostage-takers, calling himself Abdullah, took her aside on September 2, the second day of the siege, and made his spine-chilling offer. He said that Zaurbek, Medina and any other relatives could walk free. All she had to do was to strap on a belt of explosives and become a shakhidka, or suicide bomber, in support of their demands that Russia withdraw from neighbouring Chechnya.
Dumbfounded, Mrs Kudziyeva asked if she could have time to think. “Go and sit. You all have time,” she remembers Abdullah saying.
Back in the sports hall with most of the other hostages, she told them about Abdullah's offer. “They said that maybe I should do it and then the terrorists will let us go,” she recalled.
