Martyrs Quotes
This quotation was reported to Congress by Thomas Jefferson. Essentially, this religious justification is no different from that made by contemporary Islamic extremists. Particularly interesting is the last sentence. The Koran states that all Muslims who die defending Islam will go immediately to heaven regardless of their previous sins and transgressions. Under that justification, even criminal extortion and terrorism is justified by some Muslims whenever the victims are non-believers.
Fundamentalist Muslims, like fundamentalist Jews, believe that all body parts must be buried together and these young Iranian “martyrs” were being blown to bits, thus denying them a proper Islamic burial. This was a problem which the Iranians remedied. What is fascinating about this quotation is that the proper burial was the only perceived problem that needed solving—not the fact that Iran was sacrificing tens of thousands of children to clear minefields with their bodies and certain death. The proprietary of this never received much thought. See {619826} for the leadership perception.
Plunckett was the last Roman Catholic martyr to be executed in Britain. He was accused of conspiring against the state by allegedly plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion. The English have always feared ever since Henry VIII severed England from the Roman Catholic Church, that the Papacy was plotting to restore Catholicism to England and sponsor an invasion of Ireland. And indeed that was true in several cases, but nowhere near as many as the English imagined. In this case, paranoia prevailed, and the trial was pretty much a farce, but he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered which he was.
The Adams administration had passed the Alien and Sedition Acts which severely curtailed freedom of speech and of the press despite the First Amendment which clearly prohibited that.
Most Islamic fundamentalists oppose the education of girls. Malala Yousafzai as a teen ager spoke out encouraging girls to go to school. This offended some of the Taliban fundamentalist terrorist, who threatened her if she continued to speak out. When she continued, they tried to murder her. They shot her in the head, but she was airlifted for medical treatment and survived. She was the winner of the European Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and nominated for the Nobel Prize.
This is the type of person who suicide bomber recruiters seek out.
These “benefits” as well as males getting 72 virgins are constantly told to young and impressionable Muslims, some of whom take it so literally that they become suicide bombers. They actually believe that blowing themselves up feels only like the sting of a mosquito. This sales pitch for suicide bombers and other martyrs is also effective because with the poor education, high unemployment, and few political and civil rights, most young Arab males have no other way of obtaining “honor, dignity, and respect.”
He was a Protestant liberal and opposed to the English rule of Ireland and the discrimination against the Catholics. To make an example to inhibit Irish protestants from joining the Society of United Irishmen, he was accused of giving an oath to a British Soldier that he would support Irish independence. This had been made a capital crime shortly before. Actually, it was another member of the Society who administered the oath, but the prosecutor arranged for perjured testimony to convict the more prominent Orr. His execution was remembered by liberal Catholics and Protestants alike and in the rebellion the following year the rebel battle cry was “Remember Orr”.
A Fatwa is an Islamic theological legal ruling. Islam has no hierarchy. So this Fatwa is not necessarily binding on any Muslims who do not wish to be bound by it. This is one of the relatively few Islamic theological organizations who have taken a public stand against terrorism.
