Martyrdom Quotes
One Islamic belief that has stood since the inception of the religion is that if a true believer who is defending the faith in a jihad is killed, he will immediate be transported to Paradise where he will receive the best of the other world. If a Muslim dies under normal circumstances, he is judged and may or may not attain Paradise depending on his past life. However, if he dies in jihad, all past sins are immediately erased and he is guaranteed Paradise. This quotation is exactly what is told to Muslim fighters and suicide bombers today (see {635766}, {588728} and {590762}) and it is just as effective as ever in persuading men to fight and sacrifice themselves. The Roman Catholic Pope issued a similar edict in the Crusades and fights of both religions were willing and almost anxious to die in battle. In modern times Christian leaders do not make such appeals and if they did, few would believe them.
The Muslims conquered Spain and controlled it to one extent or another for 600 years.
The dramatic expression was actually not original with bin Laden. It emerged throughout Islamic history regarding the “enemies” of the time.
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.
“Musselman” was then a term for Muslims used by Europeans. The Arabs then, as many terrorists still do, commonly captured American and European ships enslaving the crews and passengers or holding them for ransom. Jefferson and Adams explained that if this could not be stopped and resolved it might mean war. The Americans could not understand why they were attacked when American had done nothing to offend the Arab Counties. The Arab envoy explained their “duty” and “right” to attack Americans and why war was not a serious deterrent to Islamic nations. Ironically, the same explanations were given by Arab leaders in the early 21st century to illustrate why the Arab countries could not be intimidated.
At the time military drumheads were made of the hide of animals. As the idea is gross to most of us today, it was to his Bohemian compatriots. The metaphor of using his remains to help even in such a simple and lowly way was dramatic patriotism in those days as it would be today.
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.
Saint-Just himself was executed at the age of 27 by the mechanism he had created.
