Jihadi Martyrdom Operations and IHL: Between the Secular and the Religious

Abstract Religious motivations conflict with the rational foundations on which human well-being in International Humanitarian Law is framed. Martyrdom operations, being a religiously motivated form of self-harm, invoke the fear that modernity has with the perceived nonrationality of religion and challenge International Humanitarian Law’s assumption that it is rational for individuals to want to avoid pain and suffering. It shows how the narratives of an agentic warrior that undergird International Humanitarian Law are reserved for combatants who die for outwardly secular reasons and in ways that conform with a Christian idea of martyrdom. Therefore, those engaging in martyrdom operations are more likely to be labeled perpetrators based on the underlying religious motivations of their acts. This clash between how International Humanitarian Law and local narratives appraise the agency of combatants carrying out martyrdom operations reveals religious biases that undergird the former framework’s understanding of combatant deaths.