Rockets As Sacred Weapons

Tragic news from the Middle East. Dozens Palestinian protesters killed and thousands injured in clashes. This happened at the occasion of opening of US Embassy in Jerusalem. The issue of Jerusalem is itself a political issue but the scale of causalities shows that it is not just related to the opening of US embassy and it proves the anger of Israeli authorities that has resulted from the incessant rocket attacks by the armed groups of Palestinians. In the previous years, thousand of rockets were fired into Israel from Palestinian areas. Israel had to develop 'Iron Dome' anti-missile system to cope with this threat. This use of rockets has to be analysed in its historical and religious background.

We can start with the use of rockets by the Arabs. From 633 AD to 750 AD, the Arabs overcame almost all local powers including Persia, Byzantium (partially) and conquered North Africa, Iberia and Central Asia. In these wars, they used fire arrows to disrupt enemy formations and concentrations. These fire arrows also took the form of rockets. Rocket seems to have gained a reputation of “sacred weapon of victory” among Arab armies.

Let us take some case studies from Indian history. In the 711 AD conquest of Sindh by Muhammad Bin Qasim, we can see clearly two things. First, he avoided travel by sea and second, he used rockets in battles. Muhammad Bin Qasim avoided journey by the sea and came to Makran from the Iranian side over land. Some reinforcement and siege gear was sent by the sea though by Hijjaj Bin Yousuf, the Governor of Iraq for Ummayad Caliph of Damascus.

From Oman, we know that Imam is not allowed to travel by sea. This restriction, however, does not extend to ordinary people. The King of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz, was criticized by the clergy of his country, when he met the President of USA, Theodore Roosevelt, abroad his ship at sea on 20th Feb 1945. Theodore Roosevelt did not disembark from his ship (USS Quincy) but invited world leaders to his warship instead. The Egyptian King Farooq came onboard like others. Only the French leader General Charles De Gaulle refused to see the US President on his warship.

In 1780s, Haider Ali of Mysore (he did not call himself Sultan) started using rockets on a small scale. His son Sultan Tipu was much more religiously-minded and he increased investments in rockets despite the fact that they were most of times useless. He could have concentrated more on the artillery instead. His artillery was led by French officers and when the France concluded peace agreement with Great Britain towards 1790s, Tipu lacked experienced artillery officers. The Navy also suffered. The investment on rockets could have been better spent on building warships. But again, he may have been discouraged from going to the sea by clergy.

When in the early 1990s Pakistan embarked upon a program to equip itself with ballistic missiles, the senior officers of Pakistan Air Force were a little amazed at the allocated resources. Air Marshal Arshad Chaudhry published an article in the Defence Journal “Aircrafts and Missiles” explaining the advantges and disadvantages of both weapon systems and why the air force should be preferred. The high command of Pakistan Air Force did not realize that these missiles are “sacred weapons” and a religious society would only prefer religious weapons.

During the civil war in Afghanistan (1990-1996), the Afghan Mujahideen groups extensively used rockets against each other and especially against the Kabul (the seat of Government). Hikmatyar seems to have placed special emphasis on the use of rockets.

Going to the Middle East, almost all rulers obtained and developped Surface-to-Surface missiles like Qaddafi of Libya, President Saddam Hussain of Iraq, and Iran. Both Iran and Iraq paid special attention to improving and increasing the range of their Surface-to-Surface ballistic missiles.

From 2001 to 2015, 12338 rockets were fired on Israel (wikipedia). All Palestinian resistance groups like Hamas etc use rockets against Israeli cities. The reason behind these attacks seems to be the religious belief that rockets would give them victory.

The Muslim Jihadi groups don't care about anti-aircraft missiles, they don't need air-to-air missiles, they don't want anti-ship missiles, they don't pay much attention to anti-armour missiles. They prefer surface-to-surface missiles or rockets only. The reason is that these groups are not led by trained and educated Generals but by religious scholars.

The continued use of surface-to-surface rockets would only result in the deaths of naive youth without any victory on ground in Palestine. To win a battle, much more weapons and supporting systems are needed than just surface-to-surface missiles with weapons selected by technical experts and troops led by a person trained for the job. To win a war, financial means and political and diplomatic skills are also needed in addition to factors mentioned already for winning a battle.