physical—that we as individuals engage in to be closer in harmony with God.
21
Certainly
this struggle can be on a grand social scale in which it is the active fight against foreign
influence and domination, but it can also be an individual struggle, a fighting of one’s
own demons. For Hamas, jihad comprises both dimensions. Again returning to the
influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas believes that education in Islam and jihad is
essential to reforming society and rejecting Western influence. This is not simply
rhetoric, Hamas argues that the infidels win only when Muslims lose the ideological
battle—when the infidels attempt to confuse Muslims about Islam.
22
Education is only one aspect of jihad. The second, violent struggle, not only
receives a greater amount of attention, but also confronts us with a new form of political
and religious engagement—the martyr. The word martyr comes from the Greek
,
which means to “witness.”
23
What is generally labeled the “Western” understanding of
martyrdom is more appropriately conceived as the Christian interpretation. The early
Christian Church saw martyrdom as an act of submission and victimization, ultimately
mimicking Christ’s death on the cross. The reward for martyrdom is an immediate
joining with Christ in heaven and a witnessing of the gospel here on earth.
24
Islam also advocates martyrdom both in the text of the Koran and in the had th.
Martyrdom in Islam is rooted in the same tradition as the Roman/Greco conception.
Romans believed, like the Greeks, that one can only posses what they can freely give
away. By volunteering one’s life, the Roman was not a victim but an empowered soldier
21
Ira Zepp, A Muslim Primer: Beginner’s Guide to Islam, (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press,
2000), 95.
22
Muhammad Maqdsi, “Charter of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of Palestine,” Journal of
Palestine Studies 22 (Summer 1993) 126.
23
Marc, Brettler, “Is there Martyrdom in the Hebrew Bible?” in Margaret Cormack’s Sacrificing the Self:
Perspective on Martyrdom and Religion (Oxford: Oxford, 2002), 2.
Convention