http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
[Update: (April 8th 2017) Our hearts and thoughts go out today to the families and friends of those killed and injured in the horrific attack yesterday in Stockholm on innocent people going about their daily lives; it is being described as an act of terror. It is being widely reported that a man arrested has sympathies/links with so-called Islamic State. Yet again, decent people everywhere, from all socio-cultural-religious backgrounds, stand firm with the people of Sweden against the threat of terrorism from whatever misguided source.]
[Update: (March 24th 2016) This poem was written in 2007. Since then, the world the world has become and increasingly more dangerous place, not least due to the spread of radical Islam which we should never mistake for true Islam. The horror of recent events in Brussels is nothing new to us. Yet, while our hearts go out to the families and friends of those so cruelly and senselessly killed simply for going about their daily lives, we must stand firm against these psychopaths, and not let fear dictate how we choose to live; our choice, not theirs.]
Some people, not only but especially religious fundamentalists, are inclined to get carried away by the prospect of martyrdom and welcome it; more often than not, this is a direct result of being mentally groomed and/or emotionally blackmailed into a deluded way of thinking by power-hungry leaders who (naturally) prefer
to stay alive.
The true
martyr does not seek martyrdom for personal (including spiritual) gain but for
the sake of honourable principles on which he or she refuses to compromise; there is no honour in taking and/or destroying the lives of innocent people.
Who deliberately seeks martyrdom to make a
point, however important (to them, at least) deserves our contempt, yes, but perhaps also our pity? Pity for their having become mere tools in the hands of those they see as 'betters' but who, in reality, have surrendered their humanity to a distorted sense of and lust for power, both temporal and spiritual.
Fundamentalism
is a threat to world peace, the more when it promotes martyrdom as a glorious
ideal.
This poem
is a villanelle.
MAELSTROM
No
crueller wisdom
or faith
more blindly placed
than in martyrdom
Life‘s
tragic outcome,
love’s
sacred trust misplaced;
no
crueller wisdom
No
prouder kingdom
better
served by want and waste
than in martyrdom
By a
beating drum,
each
sound heartbeat replaced;
no
crueller wisdom
No glory
closer come
to grief,
by holy words defaced,
than in martyrdom
Magnificent
maelstrom,
supposedly
to God’s door traced;
no
crueller wisdom
than in martyrdom
Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2016
[Note: This poem has been revised (slightly but significantly) from the version that appears in Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007; revised version in e-format in preparation.]
Labels: extremism, fundamentalism, global conscience, human, Islam, life, martyrdom. extremism, nature, peace, poetry, politics, power, radical, radicalism, religious, society, threat, world