The difference between Jewish martyrs and Islamist shahids

Jews do not seek martyrdom. Dying for one's religion is not an ideal. Martyrdom is not a goal. It is a tragic remainder when all other moral options have been exhausted. Jewish tradition sanctifies life, not death. 

Boris and Sofia Gurman, the older couple who disarmed the older terrorist in Bondi Beach before he shot them with another rifle, are real martyrs. Reuven Morrison, who threw an object at the older terrorist before being killed by the younger one, is a martyr. They are heroes. 

Yet Jews who are killed because they are Jews are also considered martyrs, in Hebrew, kedoshim - holy ones. They didn't choose how they would die, but they died as Jews. 

When Jews are killed for being Jews, they are not elevated because they died; the world is indicted because it failed to protect life.

By contrast, Islamist  and Palestinian martyrdom inverts this logic. Death is not a tragic consequence; it is the objective. The martyr actively seeks annihilation, often while annihilating others, and frames that destruction as obedience, transcendence, or moral victory. Innocent lives are not collateral damage; they are the medium through which meaning is produced. Killing becomes a sacrament.

Generations of Palestinian children are taught, in their schools and on their TV shows, that martyrdom is their goal. 

Literally.

Death is celebrated. Terrorists who are killed are treated as bridegrooms, as if they were just married to their virgins in Paradise. Parents of those terrorists consistently express how proud they are. 

This is not just a difference in theology. it is a profound difference of worldviews. One side desires life, the other side desires death while killing Jews - and indeed it mocks Jews for desiring life. 

It is a perversion to use the same word, martyrdom, to describe heroes and victims who had no choice, and terrorists who choose to die while killing others. They have nothing in common, and adopting the word "martyr" for Muslims who seek death is itself immoral. 

The Islamists who seek death aren't martyrs. They are just disgusting human beings. 

(h/t Andrew)

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