Word: martyrdoms
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...main reasons that people choose to self-destruct, killing others in the process? The key motivator for a violent actor who seeks to die like a martyr is a strong attachment to a community, usually a religious community. There are dozens of reasons for killing, but violent martyrdom is first and foremost about belonging. Strong emotional ties and strong feelings of mutual obligation often hold religious societies together...
...Mousavi, the candidate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims to have defeated: the unwanted quest and the risking of life in pursuit of an unanticipated destiny. Could he be Boromir, the imperfect warrior who is heroic at the end, dying to defend humanity? Didn't Mousavi talk about being ready for martyrdom? (See pictures of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose death has rallied the opposition...
...June 20, Mousavi is reported to have shown up at a rally dressed in a funeral shroud, declaring his readiness for martyrdom, a hugely emotional symbol among Shi'ite Muslims. The information was distributed by e-mail, and like most other information in Iran these days, its veracity is hard to prove. But with so much arrayed against him and his allies, martyrdom may be the most powerful weapon Mousavi has left...
...Because of Hussein, revolt against tyranny became part of Shi'ite tradition. Indeed, protest and martyrdom are widely considered duties to God. And nowhere is the practice more honored than in Iran, the world's largest Shi'ite country...
...revolutionaries exploited the deep passion of martyrdom as well as the timetable of Shi'ite mourning in whipping up greater opposition to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. With the deaths of Neda and others, they may now find the same phenomena used against them...