Rushdie is far too optimistic that the Western liberal vision is free from the deficiencies he finds in martyrdom. The scrap of dialogue that has been recorded for posterity is not much more than an ...

HILLARY CHAPMAN (Bahá’í Educator): The Bahá’í faith begins with two prophetic figures in 19th century Persia. The Báb was a merchant by trade, and came to assert that he was the fulfillment of Islam, ...

Princeton University’s Elaine Pagels is about the nearest thing there is to a superstar in the realm of Christian history scholarship. It is largely through her work that many understand the early non ...

In a speech four years ago, the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, presented a vision of leadership deeply tied to the idea of martyrdom. Drawing on early Islamic history, he described ...

Martyrdom is a core embodiment of the concept of obedience to God that leads to the eternal life; the life of authentic contentment and tranquillity. This culture of self-sacrifice in the sake of the ...

“The wounded surgeon plies the steel That questions the distempered part; Beneath the bleeding hands we feel The sharp compassion of the healer’s art Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.” —T.S.

In Judaism, martyrdom is an entrenched notion with a long history, culminating in the six million martyrs of the Holocaust. But there is also a “martyrdom by living,” where one defies the enemy by ...