Effects and Cultural Consequences of the Culture of Sacrifice and Martyrdom

Today, one of the preoccupations that country officials, in particular those persons who deal with cultural and social issues, face with is the issue of cultural inroad from abroad and neglecting home culture, and how should deal with it. It is obvious that invader and defender must be of equal strength. For example, a military war requires superior military might; a political challenge needs crafty politicians, and suitable cultural instruments are required in encounter between cultures. In a cultural encounter a genuine culture is required to encounter with the enemy, so, it is obvious that improper means and procedures will not at work and its consequences may benefit the enemy and lead to cultural degeneration. Some procedures may be effective in short term but it will not a method of successfully dealing with a problem and may cause another difficulty. So, today, in a confrontation with so called cultural inroad or what societies face with namely identity crisis an enriched cultural heritage is required by which humans gain a proper sense of pride and self-respect and it will be fulfilled only via the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom; that very culture by appealing to it our dear martyrs succeeded in battlefields.

News ID: ۲۱۸۶۱۵

دوشنبه - ۱۰ آبان ۲۰۰۹ / 2009 10 August

Abstract

Introduction
Of the blessings of unjust war against honorable Iranians was flourishing of the spiritual and moral talents of then time society, particularly, the young generation. The most important result of the war is the emergence of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom that can be applied as a guarantee to protect moral codes of society, in particular, of the young generation. The culture of sacrifice and martyrdom is the essential part of Islam Religion, particularly, the Shiism, but to internalize the culture and to make it common among divers groups of people of society needs far-reaching efforts. And to do this, it is required to make aware the young generation, who transform that culture to the succeeding generations, of constructive outcomes of the culture.
The Older Generation vs. the Younger Generation
The young are affected more than other peoples in society by cultural inroad. The paper attempts to study the younger generation from viewpoint of accepting one of the most genuine Islamic cultures namely the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom. All people who were born at about the same time is called generation. In other words, members of a society who were born at about the same time are considered of the same generation. In Iran, those who experienced the Revolution and the war are referred to as the first generation and the second generation refers to those who experienced only the period after the war. It is natural that generations have specific characteristics but some people believe in striking differences between generations and some others don’t think so. Those factors leading to disruption have been studied in two sections;
A. The factors relating to the older generation; if the older generation attempts to defend its values prejudicially instead of rationally, it will not be in harmony with the next generation and it will be impatient toward them.
B. The factors relating to the younger generation; it is specific of the young who are uncertain about their identity also behave naively (having the attitude of everything or nothing).
As pointed out, some people believe in disruption between generations and claim that one-sided and absolute change in society lead to behavioral problems, and disruption and lack of common identity becomes norm. So given the rapidly changes of the world, the amount of the disruption between generations will be increasing. They have presented criteria of disruption between generations to prove their claim;
1. They see the world and society very differently
2. Any society has its own specific concepts and one of the causes of disruption between generations is change among their concepts system; in other words, the concepts of the older generation replaced by those ones of the younger generation
3. Who were the resources of authority of the first generation and now who they are?
4. Lifestyles of the two generations is different
But the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom avoid such a disruption. It seems unlikely that someone hear sacrificing lessons of Ashora but do not practice them. In every corner of the world, there are some people to sacrifice their lives to reproduce such a culture. Islamic Republic of Iran and the imposed war are living proofs for that statement. As far as officials of the country distribute facilities equally, their ideals will be similar to the younger generation. The paper attempts to answer the questions that how the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom affect the younger generation.
The impacts of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom
Magnificent affect of the valuable culture of sacrifice and martyrdom on ideologies of the societies is great. The holy culture of sacrifice and martyrdom can affect social institutions and political and cultural structure of society, and, undoubtedly, it is considered the best factor of achieving to social development. Martyrdom, which is the result of mental health, moral of bravery, and conscious choice, entails resistance and dynamism of society since it has rooted in authority, patience, resistance, and fighting against profane. The above factor, mostly, makes society resistant and lead to dynamism of society. Some impacts of the culture of sacrifice in society are as follow;
1. Honoring the older generation; in the past, the younger and the older generations was considered, respectively, as symbols of ignorance and wisdom. The old men did nothing unwisely. Generational transformation deletes age differences; that is, attitudes of the seventeen-eighteen young men crystallize among the old and the middle age. Age related behaviors disappear among the old in terms of age circumstances. In other words, cultural tendencies make human inclinations change. In Ashora movement, we see that six-month infant and seventy-year-old man are fighting shoulder to shoulder in battlefield. And whenever a movement has bee begun for the sake of preservation of the ideals of karbala martyrs, we see again that different generations has been on the scene. During imposed war, thirteen-fourteen young men were fighting alongside seventieth men or beyond, and at the height of the war they esteem each other. War period conditions required the young to be ahead of the old and it should be mentioned that experiences of the young and their scientific advancements will never be replaced by those of the old. The young experiences will not comparable valuably with the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom and their culture of sacrifice and martyrdom are indebted to the old generation. Two points are needed to be mentioned in order that the older generation to not consider themselves as the right criteria since the younger generation opposition with the older one may be considered as they hate the religion (tamasoki, 1385).
2. Increasing national and cultural integrity in society; in early days of the war, because of social instability and relatively extreme poverty in the country a negative attitude was shaped that there is no national and cultural solidarity among Iranians. But far-reaching participation of the Iranians in driving the enemy from the country, particularly, in Operation Beit-almoqadas, corporation in doing things, maintenance of social integrity, nationalism, implies national integrity among all ethnicities in Iranian (Ma’navipour).
3. The emergence of subcultures; the behaviors and beliefs of a particular group of people in society that are different from those of people are called subculture. In some communities. (In front, for example), people live together in separate groups. Even though, those communities have been affected by dominant culture of society but they are subculture. Some of the combatants have coexisted long months and years with different people from various religious minorities, subcultures, and different classes of people. They also are affected by special propagations and environmental circumstances. Those conditions have brought about specific attitudes and those attitudes have been common over time. As a result, a subculture has been shaped based on new environment. Being affected by Islamic ideals and religious ideology, in particular, Shiism, are among characteristics of that subculture; that is, beliefs, values, norms, mores, and social manners have a deep relationship with religion and religious rituals (Ma’navipour).
4. Coordination instead of competition; war make people integrated and stimulate moral of solidarity in society. Corporation was of magnificent scenes of sacrifice among combatants. They sacrificed themselves earlier than the others. Going in minefields is among combatants’ sacrifices.
5. Disappearance of sanctions and its consequences; Botol believes that war is the most important of the movements and one specification of the movements is breaking the norms and taboos (Botol, 1355). After the outbreak of war, anomie will dominate society and ordinary laws are violated easily.
6. Social and economic mobility; combatants changed population patterns in society and it caused mobility of two groups: men participating in the war achieved such privileges as higher social status, and senior commanders gained the most great honors to obtain military degrees in such a way that some of them achieved model of conquer (Ma’navipour, 1385).
7. Strengthening faith and its impacts on man submission and self-purification
8. Reinforcing military might of Islamic society
9. To let God will happen in Islamic societies
10. Restoring the maxim of “prevention of vice and the promotion of virtue”?
11. Strengthening moral of sacrifice in Islamic society
12. The emergence of definite and combatant men
13. To be on the scene more and more
14. To awaken society
15. Acquiring independence, freedom, and honor
16. Teaching lessons of resistance to the world
17. Breaking the power and satanic culture of the West and the East
Achievements and results of martyrdom for human
1. Obeying Velayat unquestionably to the death
2. To be God-centered instead of being ego-centered
3. Sacrifice (to give priority to other over oneself for the sake of God)
4. Preferring the next world to this world
5. Preferring humanistic values to personal benefits
6. Trying to achieve perfection
7. To be patient and resistant
8. To not come to terms with the enemies
9. Self-respect
10. Attendance in fields of Right against Wrong
11. To not fear the death
12. Being far-sighted instead of being narrow-minded
13. Preferring God will over one’s own one
14. Mingling reason and love together (Ma’navipour. 1385)
The elements of the culture of martyrdom and the West culture
Fighting against the oppressive regime of Pahlavi was, in fact, a cultural and social war and what made people successful in the war was appealing to the culture of martyrdom. In other words, the restoration and diffusion of the culture in society created a strong and an honorable nation and help them to defeat awfully the oppressor regime of Pahlavi. It also helped nation to be victor of 8 year war. The culture of martyrdom is, indeed, that very Ashora culture that passed down from generation to generation. Ashora battle was a cultural and ideological one and it was, in reality, confrontation of Right and Wrong. Enriched and admirable culture of sacrifice and martyrdom, which contain two important elements of bravery and love, make human deny oneself. It will be a proper and effective means to encounter anti humanistic culture of the West. The West Culture exercises its plans via two God-given drives of lust and wrath. Murder, robbery, massacre and violence are result of wrath and lack of moral principles and deviant behaviors are result of lust drive. So how nicely Mujahidin conquered the two instincts; they turned wrath into epic and lust into love and they sacrificed everything for the sake of God and thought us how to live. Today, everyone who is fond of guidance, in particular, those who have experienced atmosphere of holy defense period are required to preserve invaluable culture of sacrifice and martyrdom and to foster it among the younger generation. We should not let the enemies’ satanic culture occupy blank hearts of our youths and try to introduce the priceless culture of martyrdom, which is restored through blood of the nation, to the world and try to not overlook it. All cultural means must be applied, and principles and manner of formation of the culture and its impacts on guidance of human must be explained via writers and artists; our society, in particular, the younger generation, should be aware of their true identity and take steps to build an independent and powerful country.
Identity crisis and the culture of martyrdom
The culture of sacrifice and martyrdom is a set of symbolic concepts which inspire sacrifice and willingness toward martyrdom among people. Given institutionalized, it will direct people attitudes toward sacrificing behaviors. Islamic Republic of Iran, which is fruit of sacrifice and martyrdom, caused change in all levels of society. By remembering the early days of Revolution behavioral changes can be observed among people such as helping the poor, changing consumption patterns, and comprehensive and all-embracing participation in imposed war. War not only was manifestation of sacrifice but it also caused promoting and institutionalizing the culture of sacrifice. So, remembering the 8 year war always crystallizes the concept of sacrifice and martyrdom in minds. After ending the war and adapting rapid economic, political, cultural, and social policies, and the emergence of information and communicative technologies, and changing imperialist powers’ policy, particularly, the United States, from direct to indirect confrontation toward Iran brought about such a condition in which gap between war period conditions and after it was clear cut. Globalization, cultural inroad, and Capitalism, increasing development of communicative and information technologies, and easy access to satellite channels have targeted people’ identity from any culture, nationality, and gender. Communicative and information technology helped to the emergence of a network society in which people and societies obtain new identities and new definitions from humanity are presented. Such technologies have made role of families, schools, and governments in socialization and directing human conduct less important, and they have brought about influential changes in lifestyles of people, their social manners, values and attitudes, and, beyond all, their identity. Applying information technologies, the West penetrates into society and threatens beliefs and values. To be effective usefully in information domain requires thorough recognition of means and facilities. Today, besides procedures exercising for national security, understanding the nature of modern communication, its amount and efficiency on advancing and transforming values is a vital issue since some media have targeted beliefs, values, and ideologies of the nations in order to conquer and dominate them. Culture and spiritual values is stronghold of any nation. If enemies penetrate into society, and their norms and values dominate, that society will guard consciously or unconsciously the hidden cultural interests of the enemies (Hosseini, 1358).
Globalization is among debatable issues that has preoccupied experts’ minds since it affect the future of all nations in such a way that globalization of identity will damage the religion. Ailienation is inevitable consequence of current process of globalization. Given the impacts of globalization on cultural identity of societies, we will experience the melting pot of the culture in dominant culture. The young must have rooted in their national culture by which they form their identity. Achieving this requires understanding that culture, believing in it, and finding out similarities between one’s own culture and dominant culture. Any culture has its own defense mechanism. Religious culture is also needed the best systems and mechanisms to be elevated. The culture of martyrdom, which is among subcategories of religious culture, is among the best mechanism of achieving that goal. After imposed war, Islam enemies understood that their awfully defeat was outcome of the moral of sacrifice and martyrdom among the late Imam fellows. So concurrent with cultural inroad toward religion and cowardly attacks of enemies’ agents which has begun through circulating rumors, to give a proper scientific answer to those rumors and to introduce the culture of martyrdom in details is of vital necessity. By penetrating into the hearts of the younger generation, the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom is not indifferent toward youth conditions and enemy threats but it highlights youth strong points and turns enemy threats into opportunity to advance its lasting goals. As Imam Hossein (PBUH) addressed humans’ consciousness via soft language and forgave faults of friends and enemies, and made high humanistic values alive throughout history through his grand epic of Ashora. So as far as the culture of Ashora dominate society, taking about disruption between generations is meaningless. We must, simply, understand the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom and committed to it.
Transferring the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom to the younger generation
Martyrdom is an invaluable act that its worthy and efficient results are always dominating society. Islam will not be alive without martyrs’ sacrifice; otherwise social security will be disappeared. So all of us are required to guard the martyrs’ achievements and to honor and remember them. To familiarize the third generation, who has not experienced the martyrs’ sacrifices, with the culture of martyrdom is of vital important. The methods of fostering the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom should be analyzed and all economic, cultural, and international factors which directly or indirectly affect the fostering of the culture should be taken into account in order to find a correct knowledge of it. Considering feedbacks of recognition in programs of experts of cultural domain, society will enjoy positive impacts of sacrifice. Those impacts not only lead to honor the martyrs but also make society enjoy spiritual results of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom.
One of the means of cultural diffusion and introducing cultural background of martyrdom is holding museums and permanent fairs of cultural works of the martyrs and veterans. So more effort is needed to gather and preserve valuable relics and they should be introduced to the visitors appropriately. Accordingly, they will be familiarizing with principles of the culture of martyrdom.
To utilize special expressions of sacrifice and martyrdom to name public places and streets is among the ways societies apply to honor their great men and heroes. This symbolic action can lead to remember great men in peoples’ eyes and minds.
To preserve some places, which convey braveries, resistances, and martyrdom of holy defense combatants, can also have an influencing role on fostering the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom.
Another type of places which can familiarize people with realities and events of holy defense era are the martyrs’ sacred tombs. So, proper planning in order to use this cultural reserve will has an influencing impact on continuation of it.
Installing memorials and artistic epic statues in squares and public places as a remembrance of the past is another effective means. Although memorials and congresses of honoring the martyrs are held but some interesting programs should be applied to avoid them to be monotonous and boring, and provide a ground for widespread participation of people in such ceremonies. It is obvious that to hold festivals inappropriately will have adverse impacts.
People usually take part in ceremonies in their own separate groups, so it is better to admire the martyrs and veterans of different groups such as workers, students, clergymen, and teachers. It is obvious that planning for a given group is better than one for various groups.
One of the factors that form culture of a given society is tales and stories that pass down generation to generation. Thus, storytellers and those involving in fields of tale and novel are required to write about morals, characters, achievements, and memories of veterans and the martyrs, and help to remember and exemplify them among people (Monazeh, 1382).
To do different researches pertain to the role of jihad and martyrdom on the victory of the nation, fighting against wrong, recognition of factors fostering the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom, analyzing factors hindering fostering of the culture, translating such works into other languages, and translating cultural relics of the other nations into Persian are among effective means of familiarizing the younger generation with the culture of jihad and martyrdom (Monazeh, 1382).
It should be attempted to introduce heroes of sacrifice and martyrdom to society. Describing their lives, achievements, and self-sacrifices will be a proper model for the younger and the next generations.
As the great epic of Ashora has passed down generation to generation in the form of poetry and lamentations, epics, martyrdoms, and self-sacrifices of the martyrs and veterans can also pass down the succeeding generations (Monazeh, 1382).
Art is among important cultural means of any society. Movie, theater, poetry, and visual arts are among artistic works that constitute cultural elements of any society. So expert artists, poets, committed writers are required to introduce intricacies of the exalted culture of sacrifice and martyrdom to the next generations (Monazeh, 1382).
To use such widespread systems as internet is a useful means to introduce cultural elements of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom. Given increasing amount of immoral websites, more effort is needed to promote the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society.
Conclusion
Today, enemies exercise their schemes through cultural inroad in which peoples’ identities are targeted; the problem was dominate the country during Pahlavi dynasty, and today it is seen in many countries. Identity crisis is the major problem of human. If humanity disappears in society, dignity will also fade out. People who are alienated from society are tools in hands of the Imperialists. Thus, today, it is needed to preserve and foster the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom to flourish man blank heart.
Our people aware that what lead to victory of Islamic Revolution were appealing to the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom. Another manifestation of the culture was appeared over holy defense. Appealing to the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom, people went willingly to the fronts and created epics. As we have experienced those nations who gave destiny of their country to the enemy now live in miserable conditions. It was appealing to this enriched and invaluable culture that lead to the emergence of men who sacrificed themselves to defeat the enemy for the sake of God. If our people intend to be independent and dignified, they should preserve and generate that culture, and the involved organizations should attempt to explain different aims of the culture as well as to foster it in society. Some persons think that the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom is simply needed when we are against enemies in battlefield. But it is needed in all scenes. Enemies are always awake and try to use all their military, economic, cultural, and political possibilities to achieve their aims. It is hope that our young generation and succeeding generations promote their morality and disappoint the enemies via studying the previous generation and applying cultural and spiritual elements.
References
Gaston Botol, warfare, translated by Feridon sarmad, (Tehran, National University of Iran, 1355)
Tamasoki Mohamadreza, the Impacts of the Culture of Sacrifice and Martyrdom on Relations between Generations. Adapted from cultural website of sacrifice (1385)
Hosseini Seeyedmostajat, Pathology of the promotion of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom, Adapted from cultural website of sacrifice (1385)
Zabih Alireza, the Impact of the culture of martyrdom on preservation of religion and religious values, Office for research of the martyr foundation (1380)
Rostami Parastoo, analyzing how much society is affected by the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom. MA thesis of social science, Azad University, deputy of research of the martyr foundation (1382)
Mokhtaripour Hasan, the martyrs’ braveries should be passed down generation to generation, tomorrow generation newspaper (1383)
Mardani Mohamadhoeein, Martyrdom; the ultimate of human salvation, Adapted from cultural website of sacrifice (1385)
Ma’navipour Davood, analyzing cultural and social impacts of Khoramshahar liberation, Adapted from cultural website of sacrifice (1385)
Monazeh Javad, analyzing the best methods of transferring holy defense values to the younger generation, the foundation for preservation of relics and promotion of holy defense values (1382)