To Become a Martyr

It takes a process to become a martyr. First you have to have a cause. It can be meaningful, murderous, or insane. After you have created your business plan for your cause then find a few relevant people to believe in your plan.

Once you have gotten a few million dollars from some who believe in your ideals, regardless of how radical or dangerous they are, you can begin to spread your word to the uneducated members of society.

After you have convinced much of the masses to believe your ideals, and buy into your rhetoric, it is time to go forward. Take care to keep your name in the process but your face far enough away that you are not physically harmed. Get others to trust in your commands and follow through with them. The understanding is that if you carry out the orders of your leaders then you will be going to the greatest place once you've sacrificed your life for the cause.

Then, the leader has to die.

Martyrs have occurred through History. There is the biggest name in martyrdom, Jesus Christ, who gave his life so that others would live. Was his message insane? Absolutely not. Was he murderous? Not even slightly. Was his message meaningful? Well, after 2000 years the message is still going strong. We wish that more would follow this message but there are other thinkers with other ideas out there.

Our current potential martyr is Osama Bin Laden. He was a great leader. He was charismatic and had money to burn. Even after his family in Saudi Arabia disowned him, and he was restricted from returning to the country of his home, he managed to collect funds from those who were willing to follow him. He had backers from around the world. It took Bin Laden a while, but even in the 1990's he was showing the signs of being a dangerous man.

Osama Bin Laden hid from his enemies, quietly lying in wait. He convinced intelligent people to attend American universities (much like he did himself) and learn about jet fuel, learn about architechture, and structural integrity. He convinced others to learn how to fly jet planes. Then, after several years of patiently waiting for everything to be completed, he convinced these skilled and educated individuals to board four separate American jet planes and take them over, crash them into the financial center of our country--the tallest towers in New York City, the military stronghold--The Pentagon, and the failed hit on the White House, the center of our great leadership.

His first mistake was believing he would break the greatest country in the world. Instead he made us temporarily stronger. After the attacks on 9/11 we bonded together as a country. Our first thought was to protect those of Islam faith who lived in this country. We embraced our friends and were kind to those we disagreed with. Our first and last thought was to stay strong and bite back at the dog that bit at our heels. We entered into war with al-Qaida.

Nine and a half years later, we've given thousands of American lives, and even more lives of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and neighboring countries in the push to destroy terrorist rings across the world. Our world is not safer, it is more dangerous. Osama Bin Laden was laid to rest on May 2, 2011, after being shot at close range, in the head, and killed in a compound in Pakistan. The troubles are far from over.

Now that Bin Laden is dead, he can be potentially more dangerous than he was as a revered leader of a terrorist organization. Now he has the distinction of being killed for the cause. If America, Western Europe, Canada, and other civilized nations continue to talk about him, his followers will make him a martyr. They will believe that they can get their new strength from revenge. If images of Osama Bin Laden emerge from after his death, those who are lemming followers of the ideals of limiting free thought, limiting women's rights, and limiting religious freedoms will explode out onto the front of our lives once again.

Osama Bin Laden needs to rest in peace and silence. A simple cartoon of Muhammad causes gunfire, what would an actual photograph of Bin Laden, with a bullet shot through his forehead do to these limited al-Qaida operatives? Will they lie down their rifles and cry? I doubt that. They will lift their sabers and rapid fire rifles into the air and run with wonton abandon toward their presumed enemies.

Let the man die. Not only in real life, but in memory as well. If he is not left to die completely then his legacy, and his martyrdom will continue. Do we really want to remember his death? Or would we rather continue to live ourselves? Let's not remind the followers of this ideology that he ever existed at all.