The Majority World Blog

A new year message from on high

Posted by Nasrin Alavi on Monday, January 4, 2010 1 comment

This message is sent to you with great hopes of triumph, peace and liberty for 2010. The image was taken a few days ago and is of a group young Iranian climbers on the summit of Alborz. The banner that they hold reads 'in memory of Neda and Ramin and all the Shohada [martyrs] of the wars, streets and prisons'.  

This salutation from the highest summit in the Middle East glorifies a new generation's Shohada or Islamic martyrs. They are not the vile suicide bombers that marred the last decade. Their martyrs are philosophy student 'Shahid' Neda Soltan, as she is often referred to ('shahid' meaning witness or martyr), and 26-year-old doctor Ramin Pour'andarjani, who died of poisoning after his refusal to sign falsified death certificates at the Kahrizak detention centre. Or the 19-year-old Mohsen Ruholamini, a member of the conservative student basij who died in the same centre after protesting against election fraud. 

They are Iran's non-violent Shahids, who have died for liberty and justice and by their sheer numbers inevitably herald new beginnings for the region. 


 |  See posts tagged with:  iran  martyr  Mohsen Ruholamini  Neda Soltan  Ramin Pour'andarjani


Comments

Thanks for this brief article. Stories like this offer a great corrective balance to the stereotypical image of the Islamic martyr as a suicide bomber.

As a Christian Minister I look back through history with pride to those Christians who were martyred for their faith as they stood for what is right and good about humanity and for the defense of others in some cases, but I do so while also being very well aware of the blood on the hands of many who claimed the name of Jesus of Nazareth to further their own selfish gains and to subjugate various people groups.

Islam is similar and we do a disservice to its rich traditions and diversity when we oversimplify the religion through the lens of the bloody few. It annoys me when people do this with Christianity through the lens of the Crusaders and thus it should annoy me when people do it with Islam through the lens of the violent Islamic extremist.

Frank Ritchie on 01/12/2010 | view this user's profile
Have your say

Only registered users may submit comments for posting to our site.
Register | Login