Here’s a Bizarro world TV show from Syrian television, in which ordinary-looking people sit around a table in a cheesy Western-style set, and smile as they talk about how much Arab mothers love it when their sons commit mass murder in the name of Allah. (Courtesy MEMRI TV.)

Ibrahim Z’arour, History Professor at the Damascus University: Martyrdom is the value that surpasses all values. The most exalted level in the elevation of mankind is when a person sacrifices his soul for the sake of something more precious - his homeland. Hence, when a person embarks upon martyrdom, he does so because he wants to protect the homeland, its identity, its culture, its continuity, and its future.

When a martyr embarks upon martyrdom he thinks of nothing but his homeland. He leaves his children, his brothers, his wife, his mother, and his father, and embarks upon martyrdom, because the homeland is more precious to him than all of them.

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The mother in our Arab and Islamic history has always sacrificed her children and prepared them for martyrdom. This is rooted in our religion, our culture, in our values, and our upbringing.

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The mother is the school that prepares the children and sends them to martyrdom in defense of the homeland. This culture is within all of us. I always see mothers who utter cries of joy when they learn that their sons were martyred in battles in Palestine, in the Golan Heights, or Iraq.

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‘Adnan Kanafani: The mother knows perfectly well that if she does not sacrifice her son, she will never be liberated, or her son’s sons, or the homeland, will never be liberated.

When an olive tree is uprooted from its soil, a woman may weep a lot, but she will not weep over the martyrdom of her son, because she believes that he has ascended to a better world, leaving a mark of pride on her forehead.