Christians, Muslims, and the language of martyrdom

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com

March 31, 2006, 1:35PM



Christians Deal With Language of Martyrdom
By BRIAN MURPHY
 2006 The Associated Press

 After the al-Qaida leader in Saudi Arabia was killed by security forces,
his supporters issued a message hailing him as a martyr. A week earlier,
Christian groups used the same word for an American peace campaigner whose
body was found in Baghdad. The statements reflect how the West's struggle
with radical Islam is creeping into views of religious martyrdom. Some
Christians seem ready to embrace the connotations of "victim" and "hero"
that have driven extremist Muslim declarations, with each side portraying
the other faith as a persecutor.

"Each time Islamic radicals speak of suicide bomber 'martyrs,' for
example, it reverberates in Christianity," said Jonathan Bartley,
co-director of Ekklesia, a London-based group that examines religious and
social trends. Christians match those claims by citing activists and
clergy killed by Muslims. "There's a radicalization of what martyrdom
means by some Christian groups," Bartley said. "They focus heavily on the
idea of a clash of civilizations." It's a conflict that's enhanced by the
Internet and its ability to instantly spread viewpoints.

Dozens of Christian Web sites and blogs _ including some with critical
opinions of Islam _ have used "martyr" to describe peace activist Tom Fox
of Clear Brook, Va., whose bullet-ridden body was found March 10, more
than three months after he was abducted by a group calling itself Swords
of Righteousness Brigades. His three colleagues from Christian Peacemaker
Teams were freed March 23 in a U.S.-British raid. The peacemaker teams
appealed to Christians not to use Fox's death as a rallying cry against
Muslims. "We ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or
demonize others, no matter what they have done," CPT said in a statement.
In February, an even wider outpouring followed the slaying of an Italian
Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Andrea Santoro, who was shot as he prayed
in his church on Turkey's Black Sea coast. Some reports have suggested the
suspected gunman, a 16-year-old boy, was motivated by the protests against
caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.

The Vatican's top diplomat to Turkey, Archbishop Antonio Lucibello,
mourned Santoro as a "new martyr for this millennium." In recent years,
Christian groups increasingly have used martyrdom to describe other cases,
too, including the 2004 slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and the
victims of major terrorist attacks. "There's a growing belief in a Muslim
jihad against Christians," said Jeremy Sewell, policy analyst for
International Christian Concern, a Silver Spring, Md.-based group that
tracks claims of Christian persecution. "That definitely shapes the
dialogue on who is considered a martyr."

In Islam, stories of martyrdom date back to bloodshed as the faith took
root in the seventh century. It became increasingly linked to radical
movements in the 20th century with calls for "martyrdom" by Egypt's Muslim
Brotherhood and later with Palestinian militants and terrorist groups. The
end of the Cold War brought Christian-Muslim tensions into sharper focus,
including inter-religious clashes in Indonesia and the 1996 murder of
seven French monks in Algeria by Islamic militants. While such cases are
always shocking, Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio lay movement
in Rome, worries that concepts of Christian martyrdom may be drifting
toward a "counter-punch" to Islamic radicals.

"Would someone who goes out to retaliate against Islamic terrorism be
worthy of being called a martyr? The answer is no. The Christian martyr
does not desire death or seek it for others," said Riccardi, who wrote a
book on martyrdom. Some Christian groups _ particularly conservative
evangelicals _ are quick to "use the language of martyrdom" to reinforce
suspicions about Islam, said Elizabeth Castelli, an associate professor of
religion at Barnard College who studies the issue. "The point isn't that
(Muslim) suicide bombers, for example, really 'are' or 'are not' martyrs,"
Castelli said. "The point is that people revere them as martyrs.

"For some Christians, the defining characteristic of their identity as
Christians is 'to be persecuted.' Hence, for some, one isn't really a
Christian unless one is at risk of martyrdom." Most denominations agree
that "martyr" fits the early Christians who died for their faith, but its
grows more complex after that. Many Christians also suffered at the hands
of fellow Christians during the Inquisition, Protestant Reformation and
other periods. Some churches and others broadly define martyrdom as any
Christian who is believed killed for their religious convictions, which
can extend to figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and anti-apartheid
fighter Stephen Biko. Missionary groups today usually estimate 200 million
Christians are under some form of persecution around the world.

At the funeral of Santoro, the papal vicar for Rome, Cardinal Camillo
Ruini, said "all the elements of Christian martyrdom" were present. Ruini
also expressed hope of eventual sainthood for Santoro. But the momentum
behind Santoro's case has even unsettled some in the Vatican. If the
suspected killer was mentally unbalanced or acting for criminal motives,
it could seriously undermine the campaign for martyrdom. An editorial in
Italy's influential Corriere Della Sera newspaper warned of rushing to
judgment "in a poisoned atmosphere" in which many see "an Islamic siege on
the entire Christian world." "It's easy in this climate," the editorial
said, "to fall into the trap of the 'war of civilizations.'"

___


HoustonChronicle.com
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3762252.html