Sacred Suicide

Contents: Introduction, James R. Lewis and Carole M. Cusack. Part I Historical Suicide Cults: The Sicarii suicide on Masada and the foundation of a national myth, Nachman Ben-Yehuda; Religious mass suicide before Jonestown: the Russian old believers, Thomas Robbins. Part II Contemporary Suicide Cults: Purification, illumination and death: the murder-suicides of the Order of the Solar Temple, Henrik Bogdan; Rhetoric, revolution and resistance in Jonestown, Guyana, Rebecca Moore; Individual suicide and the end of the world: destruction and transformation in UFO and alien-based religions, Carole M. Cusack; Apocalypse in Uganda: the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God one decade on, John Walliss. Part III Social-Political Suicides: A sociological analysis of Muslim terrorism, Jan A. Ali; So costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom: human bombs, suicide attacks and patriotic heroes, Mattias Gardell; Burning Buddhists: self-immolation as political protest, Katarina Plank; Dying to tell: media orchestration of politically motivated suicides, Lorenz Graitl. Part IV Faux Suicide Cults: Death by whose hand? Falun Gong and suicide, Helen Farley; The Mount Carmel Holocaust: suicide or execution?, James R. Lewis. Part V Screen Suicide Cults: Rescripting the past: suicide cults on television, Lynn S. Neal; Why Muslims kill themselves on film: from Hollywood's racism to Girard's victimage mechanism, Christopher Hartney. Index.