Let us speak plainly here: a suicide bomber can never be a martyr. The difference between the two is not one of mere perspective or semantics. The difference amounts to a infinite chasm which can never be bridged. They are quite simply polar opposites.
Speaking of the martyr's courage, G.K. Chesterton writes: "He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine."
Here lies the difference: the difference between death and life. The martyr has a sacred disdain for death - the suicide bomber has a profane disdain for life. And though they both die, only the martyr finds life, only the suicide bomber finds death.
For God's sake (I say this with all sincerity, not as a mere expression) let's not taint the blessed name of the martyr by using it to describe the murderer.
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