There's a good reason why we have that word - it indicates why the person was killed and what the person was willing to die for. Deleting the word from our vocabulary is a means to inoculate ourselves from the reality that some people are killed because others hate their faith. If you want to go down that road and flatten out all language - gut it of substance and helpful nuance - then drop the words "bigots, sexists, racists" and replace them with "haters."
This is a clear example of when to actually use the word.
I don't disagree with you though that it has been used in a bastardly way in too many other instances.