Word: martyrdom
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...protesters took to the streets despite threats of bloodshed from Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, Mir-Hossein Mousavi - the candidate the government says lost the election to Ahmadinejad - released statements via his website, saying he was prepared for martyrdom but at the same time calling the groups tormenting his supporters "brothers." It seemed impossibly moderate, almost unreasonable amid all the reports of how his green-garbed backers were suffering via water hoses and acid-like liquid dropped from helicopters. Protesters indicated they were being bludgeoned by Basiji with everything from cudgels and sticks to cable wire. Gunfire broke out. Stones...
...Neda is already being hailed as a martyr, a second important concept in Shi'ism. With the reported deaths of 19 people on June 20, martyrdom provides a potent force that could further deepen public anger at Iran's regime. (See the top 10 players in Iran's power struggle...
...belief in martyrdom is central to modern politics as well as Shi'ite tradition dating back centuries in Iran. It, too, helped propel the 1979 revolution. It sustained Iran during the eight-year war with Iraq, when more than 120,000 Iranians died in the bloodiest modern Middle East conflict. Most major Iranian cities have a martyrs' museum or a martyrs' cemetery...
...Karbala is one of the two holiest Shi'ite shrines - millions of Iranians make pilgrimages there every year. Just as Christians re-enact Jesus' procession bearing the cross past the 14 stops to Calvary before his crucifixion, so, too, do Shi'ites every year re-enact Hussein's martyrdom in an Islamic passion play during the holy period of Ashura...
...force destroyed and the loss of much of the southern part of the country to Shi'ite insurgents, but Saddam held on and remained in power. The Iranian regime believes it can weather the same degree of losses, especially as it has adequately prepared its populace for "martyrdom." As a result, it believes it is able to withstand much greater human and material losses than the U.S. A $100-per-bbl. spike in the price of oil and a few thousand Americans dead, its thinking goes, will convince the U.S. to seek a truce...