From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian

In almost the last words in the Bible, John writes, "He which testifieth
these things said, 'Surely I come quickly.'" (Rev 22:20) The Greek word
for "testify" is martureo which is used for anyone who gives evidence in
a court case. In Christian terms the ultimate testimony is to give your
life rather than forsake your beliefs - in other words, to become a martyr.

Christian martyrs are people who suffered violence, often extreme
violence, rather than give up their belief in Jesus Christ.

Arabic has a term, shahid, which has come to be translated as "martyr",
an egregious mistranslation that makes mockery of the concept of
martyrdom. Basically it would appear that any Muslim who dies at the
hands of a non-Muslim automatically becomes a "martyr", whether he is a
bank robber shot by cops in the course of committing a crime, a
terrorist who blows himself up trying to kill innocent women and
children, or a vicious tyrant who enriches himself while oppressing the
people unfortunate enough to come under his rule.

It's about time we started calling out this nonsense. Opinions may
differ on whether it was right to kill the Iranian president or not, or whether he was a good or a bad ruler, but the one thing he was not is
that he was not and is not a martyr. He was never called upon to forsake
his Islamic faith, he was not killed defending his religion against
attacks by non-Muslims, his death is not linked in any way to his beliefs.

By all means call him "shahid" if that is an appropriate term - I'm not
an Arabic scholar and do not know the meaning or implications of the
word - but stop debasing our English language and its cultural heritage. Neither Ayatollah Khomanei nor the London Underground bombers nor the
nasty little Boko Haram criminals are martyrs.

God bless,
Kendall K. Down
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