mark wrote in message ...
Pan wrote in
:

The one good characteristic of Muslims is that they frequently
commit suicide.

Commiting suicide is against Islam. Whoever commit suicide will go to
hell. Those who commit sucide are not racticing the true teaching of
Islam.

Right, but the claim by the advocates of suicide terrorism is always
that it is martyrdom (shahid), not suicide.


martyrdom = your enemies kill you
suicide = you kill yourself deliberately

The correct English word is definitely suicide.


What other interpretations does shahid have?

For your information, there are 3 level of knowledge where the muslims
follow.
First is the Qur'an (the holybook).Second is the hadith ( the words
and the behavior of the Prophet). Third, Ijmak Ulama (the concensus of
the Ulama or Scholars)

The qur'an is the highest source of knowledge. However, there are
cases where the Qur'an did not explain clearly what the muslims should
do. So, they rely on the hadiths. The hadiths compliment the Qur'an.
But as human life get more complicated as the time pass by, there are
many cases where the muslims could not get a clear guide from the
Qur'an and hadiths.

For example, many many years ago, the scientists has find a way to
help couples to have a baby through "test tube" method. You cannot
find a clear explanation about the issue in the Qur'an or hadiths. So,
the muslims struggle to figure out the issue. Is it ok for muslims to
have a baby through this new method? Some people say yes, and some
people say no.....In the event like this, this is where the ulama play
their role. They will debate it and find a common decision. Finally
they came out, its ok as long as the eggs and the sperm used came from
a married couple.

Regarding "suicide" and "syahid". If you study the qur'an...killing
yourself is totally a sin and against Islam. However, the "suicide"
that we witnessed today have different flavor into it. They killed
themselves while taking the enemy along. Because of that nature, the
ulama still have difficulty to decide whether it is a plain "suicide"
which is a sin and "shahid" because of the sacrife is based on
destroying the enemy......So it still up in the air. Some say its
"syahid", some says it not. If you ask the Palestinians, they will
answer it as shahid. They say thats the only way the can defend
themselves from the Israel. But for people who live far away like us,
our ulama might see it differently. So I think, as far as I know there
is still no concensus about it.