Modern meaning of martyrdom

Muslim martyrs

The concept of martyrdom (shahada) in Islam, for instance, is to be understood in light of the Islamic concept of the Holy Struggle (jihad) where, for example, the religion provides a justification for a martyr (shahid) to take their life in a violent manner that claims the lives of others in the same process.

In contrast, among Christians, martyrdom should not be sought. Instead, it should come as inevitability. Martyrs are driven by faith and the Christian doctrine exhorts its members to be willing to suffer and lose their lives for the sake of their beliefs. But any Christian that actively seeks to be martyred is seen as seeking martyrdom, not or the glory of God, but for themselves.

Also, Hajji Nsereko Mutumba, the Spokesperson of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) says, although Islam embraces martyrs, the religion has no special designation for them.

“The Muslim martyrs who died [in Uganda] in 1876 are still the same (16 documented martyrs) and they don’t have any special place in the Islamic religion,” he says, “We only pray that for their martyrdom, Allah blesses their works.”

Mutumba says Muslim martyrs cannot be ‘canonized’ because it is hard to confirm if they indeed died because of their faith—that is between them and Allah.

“We could think they died because of their religion when there were other possible non-religious reasons.”

Mutumba also notes that Islam does not permit the faithful to do pilgrimages to places like Namugongo because there are only three designated holy places where Muslims around the world go for their pilgrimage: Mecca, Medina and the Bayt al-Muqaddas mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

At Namugongo, Mutumba says, Muslims have only erected a mosque near the guillotine as a place for prayer only.

On July 9, 1998, the late archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Janani Luwum was commemorated with a statue at the Westminster Abbey in London as a 20th century martyr. In 1977, Luwum was assassinated during the rule of then-president Idi Amin.

He was commemorated together with nine other modern day martyrs who also had their statues erected at Westminster Abbey.

During the service, the Rev Dr Anthony Harvey, sub-dean of Westminster, told the congregation:

“There has never been a time in Christian history when someone, somewhere, has not died rather than compromise with the powers of oppression, tyranny and unbelief.

“But our century, which has been the most violent in recorded history, has created a roll of Christian martyrs far exceeding that of any previous period.”

More Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined, according to David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, two of the world’s leading religious demographers.

The trend has not abated in this century. Though the statistics are uncertain and highly dependent on counting methodologies, the number of Christians killed for their faith every year almost certainly lies in the thousands and possibly tens of thousands.

According to the International Society for Human Rights, Christians are estimated to make up 80% of those who are persecuted for their religion. They have been killed in India, Vietnam, Iraq, Colombia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Sri Lanka, China and Indonesia.

In Rome, according to American Magazine, bones of early Christians who were beheaded or thrown to lions seem to lie in or under every public square.

But the relics at the Basilica of San Bartolomeo are of modern day martyrs: the Bible of Pakistan’s Shahbaz Bhatti, whom terrorists shot dead in 2011, the missal of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador in March 1980, the Bible of EvaristeCagorora, who had sought shelter in a church during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, a letter by Christian de Chergé, a Trappist monk of Notre Dame de l’Atlas in Algeria, whom Islamist terrorists killed in May 1996.

The basilica, which sits on Tiber Island astride Rome’s Trastevere district, is run by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay movement, as a unique testament to today’s Christian martyrs.

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