Is Islam A Death Cult?

[Ferrocyanide]

In the Quran and hadith, martyrs are first and foremost those who have died in jihad, “fighting in the path of God,” those who have perished violently in battle.

Certainly, death in battle is not the only way to achieve martyrdom in Islam. Those who die unjustly or whose lives are truncated by some act of God are martyrs as well. Someone who is killed for their money, someone who drowns, someone who dies building a mosque or in a structural collapse, a woman who dies in childbirth, the victims of a plague, someone who is killed defending their family, someone who is killed for speaking truth to an unjust ruler, who dies in prison or who stands alone for truth in corrupted times; even (according to one hadith) someone who falls in love and represses their desire with fatal consequences—all these are martyrs.

Source: (https://tinyurl.com/3xtv3b39)

In the article he goes on to take a very erudite and western interpretation of the Quran and the meaning of Duty.

"What if Muslims restored this idea of ‘bearing witness’ to the word martyrdom? What if we thought of martyrdom as bearing witness by being willing to die in the name of that God Who tells us that saving one life is like saving all of humanity, that standing up to injustice is the highest act of faith, that feeding the stranger and the orphan, and sheltering the wayfarer are the solemn duties of every individual? The Quran (41:33) tells us, “What better word is there than calling out to God, doing a good deed and saying, Indeed I am one of those who submits to God.”"

Dying for the cause of God is the highest honour a Muslim can get.
The question is: what ranks up as a death in "God's cause"?

Martyrdom = death in battle for God, death while sacrificing for God.


So if God despises your act (like causing the death of innocents -even innocent non-believers-, causing corruption on the land...etcetera)  you can't claim it is death for God. God might throw you in hell instead for the sin you caused.

BTW, all countries claim they have the true "meaning of martyrdom". I know lots of Americans who threw themselves in the crematoria of Iraq and Afghanistan to be "martyrs for the USA".

Well, obviously in the islamic faith, dying for Islam is a high honor. The leaders want strongly devoted followers.
It is the same in christianity.

It isn't just the united statians that didn't like what the taliban and Al-quada was doing.
One of the issues is that they don't allow women to get an education.
But that isn't the primary reason why they went to Afghanistan. The primary reason is that Al-quada payed a visit to the USA and decided to randomly kill people. They also conducted attacks in other countries.
Since they are taking away lives, it makes sense to take away their (Taliban) lives.

The only problem is that all wars come down to resources. The USA and allies do not have the resources to kill all of Taliban or Al-quada.
It costs too much.
Also, they wanted Afghanistan to self govern and to handle the taliban. Looks like that didn't happen.
Looks like the taliban has a large population and lots of weapons.
Probably another factor is the Russia-USA problem that has been going on for 100 y or so. The USA chose to help the taliban when Soviet Russia wanted to invade Afganistan. It makes sense for Russia to help the Taliban. It is a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation.