martyrdom

Dying for God and nation, framed by Jiang as the practical military force produced by eschatology.

In Jiang's account of Shia politics, the sacrificial death that binds believers and forces jihad.

The transformation of wartime death into collective memory, honor, and renewed purpose.

In the interviewer's framing, a death that spiritually consolidates and mobilizes a population under war pressure.

Jiang says the Cathars were hard to suppress because they were unafraid of death and inspired even ordinary Catholics to protect them and, in extreme cases, to join them in martyrdom.

Jiang says Iran’s cultural system combines Zoroastrian eschatology and Shia traditions, producing long-term cohesion and willingness to fight to the death.

He defines this eschatological response as creating fanaticism by telling a suffering population that suffering is part of God's plan, produces invincibility, and gives martyrdom heavenly reward.

He uses the Iran-Iraq War as evidence that martyrdom ideology galvanized Iran, frightened Iraqis, and could have defeated Iraq if America had not used chemical weapons against Iran.

War pushes the Islamic theocracy toward Shia eschatology and martyrdom, imagining a messianic war against Israel and the United States.

The reported killing of Ayatollah Khamenei is interpreted by Jiang as a decapitation strike that Iran can recode as martyrdom and self-sacrifice rather than defeat.

Jiang models Shia martyrdom as the force that binds the community, gives life meaning, and can galvanize jihad after the death of a religious leader.

Jiang's second characteristic of messianic calling is absolute fearlessness: the chosen person believes God protects him, or that death makes him an elect martyr whose followers continue the mission.