Repost: "He would tease us and ask if we wanted to die as martyrs with him"

[EoZ notes that it is the third anniversary of Rayyan's death. This article from the Journal of Turkish Weekly (the link still works) brings out the martyrdom fetish that prevails in at least some quarters of the Gaza in an unusually striking way. Rayyan was the most prominent Hamas memeber to be killed in Cast Lead, but his extremely dramatic death does not fit the leftist narrative. Original post here.]

From Ma'an via Journal of Turkish Weekly. Martyrdom is what you might call a recurring theme here:

One of the surviving daughters of slain Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan, Walaa, spoke to Ma’an Saturday. [...]

"My father raised us all to love martyrdom," Walaa said. "If you had the chance to ask my 4-year-old sister Aaysha, who died in the attack, she would have told you that she preferred to die martyr." [...]

One hour before he was killed Rayyan’s daughter in law Eyman Asfora went to visit him. Walaa remembers that Eyman, wife to Rayyan’s eldest son Bilal, was received with a smile. He asked her if she would like to die a martyr with him, and she said "yes." But she left seconds before the missile struck the four-storey home.[...]

According to one of his four wives, Rayyan would tease his children in the days before his death, and ask them: "Who wants to die martyr with me?" and all his children used to answer, "Yes daddy, we all want to be with you alive or dead." His youngest son said, "I can’t imagine that you die martyr and leave me behind unable to see you. I want to die with you.

Dr Rayyan, who held a PHD in Hadith (the profit Muhammad’s narrated teachings), was killed along with his four wives . . .