Page - 124 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

124 | www.limina-graz.eu hande Birkalan-Gedik | muslim | martyr | masculine at least in earlier Christianity, it took the form of immolating oneself for Christ.8 Discourses about dying for God (Boyarin 1991) become synony- mous with “dying for the country” or “dying for a holy cause.” Discourses of martyrdom, even in secular contexts, lie at the core of nationalism per- petuated by the current politics in Turkey. With respect to “martyrdom,” the AKP’s new nationalism is tied to the religious subjectivity and the na- tion, where elements draw on Islamic sources such as the Koran and the Hadith (the sayings of Mohammed) on the evening of 15 July 2016. Martyrdom in Islam and the AKP’s Framing Discourses of Martyrdom A discussion of Islamic sources and the AKP’s discourses on martyrdom will shed an important light on the interpenetrations and divergence of secular and religious discourses. The term martyrdom in Islam is almost always a male construct, formed by and for the male subjectivities. In current us- age, a shahid, a martyr, refers to men who died in battle. According to the Islam Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of Islam), a martyr is defined based on a “passive” act of “being killed on the way to reaching God.” (Atar 2010) In other religions, a martyr is defined as someone who chooses to sacrifice themselves for a noble death. This understanding could make it difficult to distinguish a noble death from suicide (Atar 2010). However, this form of martyrdom is one among many variations. Scholars argue that it should be read “against the backdrop of specific social and political circumstances which have mediated the meanings of this critical term” (Afsaruddin 2016, 1, 8), underlining the competing definitions of what a martyr is. Accord- ing to Afsaruddin, the notion of martyrdom is used much more extensively and the one that relates to battle appears much later in the interpretations, especially that of the highly authoritative Al-Bukhari. The definition of a martyr who dies in war is, as Afsaruddin explains, a late medieval con- struction (2016, 16). Yet, the roles available to women in Islam regarding martyrdom are lim- ited: Traditionally speaking, female martyrdom in Islam has been defined not in relation to war or battle, but in relation to women’s roles as a moth- ers and wives. According to Taberani, a famous Persian hadith exegetist of The term martyrdom in Islam is almost always a male construct, formed by and for the male subjectivities. 8 For a comparative religious per- spective on martyrdom, see Hoff- mann 2018.