The Center for Islamic Suicide? If that sounds too ridiculous, read the link.
Not that people in the West don’t commit suicide, but it’s nothing to be proud of. We don’t tend to brag about it. Suicide is simply a bad thing. If done at all, it’s an admission that life has no meaning.
If you ask me, the fact that people want to do it really isn’t much of a lifestyle advertisement for whatever the hell lifestyle they’re advocating.
I am not saying that suicide is Islam, but obviously some deranged people continue to think it’s the highest form of Islam.
It may scare the hell out of people, but in balance, as a form of PR, it’s a loser. Furthermore, as a war tactic, advertising that you want to die is an admission of the stupidity — and futility — of your cause.
Dying to volunteer?
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One response to “Dying to volunteer?”
One thing I get sick of is when people call a suicide a “martyr”. A suicide is not a martyr. If a decent person kills himself, it’s tragic. If a murderer kills himself, the only tragedy is that he escaped execution.
A martyr is someone who is murdered or executed because he or she refuses to renounce some belief. Socrates was forced to drink poison, and thus became a martyr to his philosophy. Jesus, a.k.a. the Christ, was nailed to a cross, and thus was a martyr to his faith. The early Christians were variously put to death by the Roman authorities for preaching their faith in his saving death and resurrection in opposition to the Roman Gods. Later, Norsemen were likewise tortured to death by Christian kings for refusing to renounce their faith in the Gods of their ancestors. Joan of Arc and Giordano Bruno were burned at the stake by the Catholic church for holding to their beliefs.
Being tied to a stake or a wheel is different from jumping off a bridge. The latter is tragic, but only the former constitutes martyrdom. A soldier is also willing to die for his beliefs, but since he is able to shoot back, that also makes him different from a martyr.
Words have meanings, rooted in history, and should be used accordingly.