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JIHAD: HOLY WAR OR INTERNAL STRUGGLE?
In the linguistic sense, the Arabic word “jihad” means struggling or striving and applies to any effort exerted by anyone. ... This paper will attempt to explain Jihad from many different angles and compare verses from the Qur’an to the interpretation of the media and others.
The word “Jihad” has been in frequent use in the Western media over the past few years, explained directly to mean “holy war”. ... It does not have a counterpart in the Islamic vocabulary, and Jihad is not its translation. The word “Jihad” means “striving”. In its primary sense Jihad is an inner thing, within oneself, useed to exercise constancy in achieving a higher moral standard. ... ” (49:9) Therefore military action is part of Jihad but not its whole.
Jihad is not a declaration of war against other religions and certainly not against Christians and Jews as some media and political circles desperately want it to be. ... In Islam war is unholy, Jihad must mean anything but holy war. ... How does jihad jive with compassion, mercy, and peace? ... Throughout history, in the eyes of the Muslim extremist, engaging in lesser jihad, the definition of “unbeliever” and “enemies of the faith” has included not only non-Muslims but also people who consider themselves as Muslims. ...
It has also often happened that two Muslim groups have officially waged jihad on each other, the most obvious recent case being the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s wherein a million people were slaughtered, and there will no doubt be more of such cases in the future for as long as the word-concept of jihad is in existence. In other words, even if the whole world has been converted to Islam, there would probably will still be Muslim extremists who will wage jihad on whoever they think is an unbeliever or enemy of the faith, because as long as the word-concept of jihad is in existence and can be used. ... “This kind of jihad predominates among many Muslim “fundamentalists” or “extremists.” Jihad is a very important Islamic doctrine because it allows Muslims to fight the enemies of the faith, both humans and ones own mind. Physical violence to a person is theologically acceptable if done as a part of “jihad”. The trouble is that “jihad” is a term that can be interpreted in so many ways. Jihad to a large extent has determined the worlds religious map. Until the present, many Muslim groups, such as the Taliban often labeled as “fundamentalist” or “extremist,” still adhere to jihad as a means to propagate religion.
Is jihad compatible with peace? ... Peace and violence both exist in Islam, and peace (the favorite greeting in Islamic paradise) dominates in most cases, but violence (in jihad) is allowed in certain circumstances. ... Jihad as an on-line persona when he pioneered an Islamic web site a decade ago. ... Jihad and the Intellectual Muslim Guerrillas. The name was meant to be light-hearted, but it also reflected his commitment to the traditional understanding of jihad in the Qur’an, which is best translated as a struggle or striving. ... Jihad from his Web site. The terrorists who used jetliners filled with innocent people as weapons of mass destruction, and who may have justified their actions as a jihad against enemies of Islam, have so perverted the noble word that he cannot use it. ... He suspects they convince themselves that military jihad has always had “collateral damage” and that, if American policy sustains injustice, they can target any American interest. ... In it, Muhammad declares battle the “lesser jihad” and spiritual purification the “greater jihad. ... ” Voll compares the usage “ jihad” to that of “crusad”e, which was a military term in 1099 when European Christian armies took back Jerusalem from Muslim Turks who had conquered the Holy Land.
Approximate Word count = 3029
Approximate Pages = 12.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
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