Talk:Martyrs and homicide bombers

The term 'martyr' as used by the Palestinians refers to any person who loses his life because of the Israeli occupation. Thus the term may be used for a child who dies of tear-gas inhalation, a person killed during a demonstration against Israel, a person shot by a settler, a prisoner who dies while in Israeli jails, a victim of an assassination, whether the target or not, a woman who dies giving birth while being stopped at a checkpoint, a foreigner such as Rachel Corrie who was killed trying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian house, as well as a fighter or militant who is killed while actively fighting the occupation, including a suicide bomber. It is misleading to equate 'martyr' with 'suicide bomber' and is distressing to many Palestinians who do not agree with the method of suicide bombing, but stand behind their people's struggle against oppression wholeheartedly.

I incorporated some of this material into the article itself. --Sheldon Rampton 01:33 23 Jul 2003 (EDT)

"I find it so funny..."

I find it so funny that the radical left as come up with a web page to justify their own language revisionism, while condemning others. This entire page is nothing but progaganda in its own right.

Your blanket condemnation and judgement of "people who use this term" (roughly paraphrasing) is rushing to judgement at best and at worst pure bigotry. Any common sense analysis of the use of the term "martyr" to describe homicide/suicide bombers does not even mention or acknoledge the humanity of the VICTIMS of these bombers, most usually Jewish children.

Come to terms with your bigotry.

The comment above is a good example of what Nietzsche once described as "the art of reading badly." The commentator seems to have not even read the article he/she criticizes. The article in fact expressly critiques the term "martyr," stating that it helps "jihadists focus attention on the bomber's 'heroic' willingness to die for their cause, while avoiding mention of the innocent people whom the bomber kills." This is in fact one of the main points of the article. It amazes me that anyone can read the article and miss this point. --Sheldon Rampton 01:38, 7 Sep 2004 (EDT)