passing themselves as martyrs
Hi there!
These are some excerpts from the novel "The Kite Runner"
.....The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi'a.........I showed the book to my teacher and pointed to the chapter on the Hazaras. ..........."That's the one thing Shi'a people do well," he said, picking up his papers, "passing themselves as martyrs."

I want to know, what this sentence means -- 'passing themselves as martyrs'
In fact, I am not sure about the meaning of "pass" here.

Thanks ^^

Question

passing themselves as martyrs
Hi there!
These are some excerpts from the novel "The Kite Runner"
.....The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi'a.........I showed the book to my teacher and pointed to the chapter on the Hazaras. ..........."That's the one thing Shi'a people do well," he said, picking up his papers, "passing themselves as martyrs."

I want to know, what this sentence means -- 'passing themselves as martyrs'
In fact, I am not sure about the meaning of "pass" here.

Thanks ^^

Answer

Almost 11 years have passed, and I wonder if you had the last answer to this. I just read the book and had the same question as yours. I have looked through all the comments below, and perhaps some of them missed the point. Looking forward to your response. Thanks ^^

Answer

Actually I think this was a question to do with language, not about the intelligence of the teacher.

'passing themselves as martyrs' is actually incorrect English.  The expression is to 'pass oneself off as something or someone'...  so it should be 'passing themselves off as martyrs...'

Answer

Thanks a lot, but there's a huge mistake.... The words about "my teacher's comment" are not really my teacher's comment. They are excerpts from the book as well. ;)

Answer

I agree with Eliot. Your teacher was expressing a personal opinion. For more info about this novel, I suggest that you look at 
http://www.enotes.com/kite-runner

Answer

passing themselves as martyrs = making themselves look like martyrs to everybody else

The comment by your teacher was a pretty stupid one, actually. You can ignore it.