Hot Issue: Martyrdom in the Media

A big issue in the Australian media today - in print and on air - concerns comments by a Muslim sheikh concerning martyrdom, anti-semitism, jihad and which have been interpreted by Australian political leaders as hate-speech and inspiring terrorism. Kevin Rudd has gone as far as to say that the sheikh (an Australian citizen) shouldn't return to Australia.

Coverage of the story can be found in The Australian, ABC News Online, and The Age. Interestingly, the equivalent article in the SMH doesn't directly mention the martyrdom comments.

Certainly his comments about jews were inappropriate, but what I find interesting about this is that martyrdom is also a biblical concept - back to Stephen in Acts 7 and arguably Jesus himself, in his crucifixion. Going further back, we might even see Samson as an Old Testament martyr of sorts - even with his flaws. I understand that martyrdom was seen as the ultimate act of Christ-likeness in the early church, and even Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of Kevin Rudd's great heroes, is celebrated as a 20th Century martyr. Within the last few months I heard a sermon talking about Christian mission and evangelism, where the speaker made the point that there is really no such thing as a closed country - there is no country in the world where a Christian cannot get into in order to share the gospel - you might never be able to leave again and you might be going knowing that you will die there - but that price would be worth it.

So, why are Sheikh Mohamed's comments on martyrdom so controversial? Has suicide bombing and material (rather than spiritual) war become so closely allied with Islam that we automatically assume that Islamic preaching on martyrdom means dying in violent struggle? I wonder if this is what the Sheikh actually meant - the commentary in the media today has views both ways, with some apologists saying the Sheikh meant martyrdom in non-violent struggle, while others argue that he unequivocally was discussing terrorism/suicide attacks.

I don't know that there's much of a lesson to draw from this, except that while there have been several comments by Islamic leaders in Australia that most of the Australian population finds offensive, we shouldn't necessarily be too quick to condemn preaching about martyrdom without first understanding the context. After all, while Christians are not Muslims and will disagree with almost all Islamic theology, we can still respect exhortations to resist sin to the point of shedding blood (ref. Hebrews 12:4).