#its just so inherently religious in an american context that it doesnt work to describe the situation

[actuallyyangxiaolong]

Okay so I've seen a lot of non-Arab Americans on here calling Palestinians martyrs in english lately and PLEASE STOP DOING THAT IT DOESN'T MEAN WHAT YOU THINK

Unlike in Christianity, martyr in Islam means more than just dying for religion/a cause. Arabic and the Quran even have 2 words for it! Shaheed (شاحيد), the version that is used to refer to Palestinians, covers a lot of people. To my understanding (I'm not Muslim), it refers to people who get special in honors by God in heaven and are therefore respected in society. Like, it's the most honorable way to die, almost. There are a lot of people in this group is Islam (yes ppl who die for religion but also people who die from plague, childbirth, illnesses like heart disease or organ failure, being crushed, drowning, and basically a bunch of other similar types of deaths). Most natural ways to die seem to be covered by this- other than senseless violence.

So, when calling Palestinians martyrs, arabs and Muslims basically mean that they should be honored. Kind of like, how Christians might say "rest in peace, they're in heaven now", in Islam you can say someone has been martyred. They're shaheed. They'll get an extra nice heaven.

Unless you are literally spouting Hamas propaganda (don't do that. it's a very White thing to do), martyr does NOT mean that they have died to help advance the Palestinian cause. THEY ARE NOT JESUS. They didn't die for Islam or your sins or whatever else Christians think martyr means.

It just means they are going to heaven. Please, Christians (and ex Christians) in the US stop calling Palestine people martyrs it doesn't mean what you think and you are referring to them basically the way Hamas and Israel do- as if they are all trying to advance a cause or Islam or violence

They are just people and it's sad and horrible when they die but they aren't people dying in a jihad battle for religion or freedom they're just dying

Martyr doesn't really work as an English translation of shaheed and I'd say borders on propaganda and misinformation. It also reminds people of jihadists (shaheed people who die in battle for Islam, nowadays largely terrorist groups like ISIS) and flattens all arabs into the terrorist stereotype again. Please stop using it in posts