The many faces of martyrdom

Too many politicians and religious zealots get worked up for the wrong reasons and dribble over their kitsch taste.

If one went strictly by the definition in the dictionary, Syed Munawar Hassan of the Jamaat-e-Islami had a point when he referred to Hakimullah Mehsud as a martyr. Now before you decide to string me up on the Appian Way look up the meaning of martyr in the 1990 edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary. A martyr is: “A person who is put to death for refusing to renounce a faith or belief.” To make sure that the lads in England had gotten it right, I consulted Webster’s Third New International Dictionary copyrighted by Merrium-Webster Inc in the Philippines in 1986. This gives a similar definition and adds, “One who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty for witnessing to and refusing to renounce his religion, tenet, principle or practice belonging to it.” Now here is the nub of this contentious issue. If Hakimullah Mehsud was martyred for refusing to renounce his faith or belief, can anybody enlighten me as to what his faith and belief was?

From what the majority of sensible people in Pakistan believe, his goal was to totally destabilise the system under which we live and to destroy the very fabric of our society. The problem in our country is that there are too many politicians and religious zealots who get worked up for the wrong reasons and then dribble over their laughably kitsch bad taste. The Jamaat-e-Islami chief is no exception. Flushed with partisan polemics and certain that he would get away with it, he stated that Pakistani soldiers are not martyred when they lay down their lives in the defence of their country. This statement has made him look ridiculous in the eyes of sensible citizens who regard the Pakistani Taliban not only as an unmitigated nuisance but also as the country’s most potent enemy.



Saroop Ijaz, in his article in The Express Tribune dated November 13, was right when he stated that there is a sense of honour and valour in martyrdom. Like the Spartans in Thermopylae, repulsing a massive Persian army or Horatius holding the bridge over the River Tiber against the huge army of Lars Porsana of Clusium. Now where is the nobility and gallantry in blowing up army camps, police barracks and houses of worship and shooting female teenagers whose only crime is that they want to go to school to get an education? Where is the bravery and heroism in pressing buttons that detonate bombs or firing rockets from planes by remote control? If you want an example of infinite courage in modern times, turn to the Japanese foot soldier in the Second World War who was fearless in battle. Mind you, there is a gripping unknowingness about the episode of the drone attack on the Taliban leader — which fell plum into the lap of the local conspiracy theorists who wondered why the Americans chose this particular time to kill the Taliban leader, when they knew all along where he was located and could have taken him out at any time? Was it because Mehsud had agreed to negotiate terms with Nawaz Sharif? Before the Jamaat chief makes any more contentious statements, he should read Russian history, especially the part where Czar Alexander III says: “Russia has only two allies — its army and its navy.” A local journalist put it rather nicely when he said, “The Yanks are assisting the Pakistan Army in ridding the country of the menace of terrorists. We all know who the enemy is. It’s certainly not the Americans.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2013.

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