Thoughts on 'Jihad'

[geekybear]

Jihad means "struggle" in arabic, as in the struggle to please God.

This in not Jihad:
-killing innocent people
-suicide terrorist acts
-toppling skyscrapers
-hijackings
-bombings
-calling for others to kill people that are from certain nations

This is Jihad:
-comforting strangers in time of tragedy
-waiting in line for hours to donate blood
-taking/sending foot, beverages, socks, etc to rescue workers
-digging through rubble with bare hands to find and help wounded
-donating money to the relief effort
-running into buildings as they crumble to save the lives of others


The point of this? Just something to consider.

 

[AmRoD]

I saw on tv all guys claiming on tv to want 'Jihad' and all I kept thinking was don't these ppl work?? (All day when ever there is a riot or something you see middle age'd and young men rioting) Wouldn't they rather live a life and get married and have kids then go fight or do something more productive?

 

[bandXtrb]

<< I saw on tv all guys claiming on tv to want 'Jihad' and all I kept thinking was don't these ppl work?? (All day when ever there is a riot or something you see middle age'd and young men rioting) Wouldn't they rather live a life and get married and have kids then go fight or do something more productive? >>

I guess theyre killing time until they get to paradise in the afterlife (or so they think).

 

[Oscar1613]

<< This is Jihad:
-comforting strangers in time of tragedy
-waiting in line for hours to donate blood
-taking/sending foot, beverages, socks, etc to rescue workers
-digging through rubble with bare hands to find and help wounded
-donating money to the relief effort
-running into buildings as they crumble to save the lives of others >>



uhh... i believe that is incorrect... we just studied Islamic culture in world history and we talked about jihad. jihad is a holy war declared by a high ranking official (dont remember what they're called...) in the islamic community. in this type of war, any one who fights and dies for the muslims are guaranteed a spot in heaven. also, conversion by force is accepted and encouraged.

however, the islamic religion is a religion of peace and the terrorists (if they were indeed all muslim) only acted on a very radical view of the islamic faith...

 

[Pliablemoose]

Holy Jihad-seriously overused...

 

[syzygy]

you made a number of good points. another one to add is that mujahideen cannot declare jihad. the taliban are, or
were, something on the order of reformed mujahideen, or at least mullah mohammed omar was. he grew angry at
the lawlessness perpetrated by his fellow mujahideen commanders and one fabled day decided to enact a little
backwoods justice on one particular miscreant commander and his fame grew from that point on.

many of the taliban leaders who were schooled in pakistan were also influenced by deobandism, an orthodox
variant of sunni islam, similar to wahhabism, saudi arabia's most infamous ideological export. deobandism underwent
a noticeable change in philosophical structure during the violent birth of pakistan in the late 1940s when the leading
islamic jurist at the time, abdul a'la maududi, brought deobandism in interpretation to the brink of applied totalitarianism.
much like wahhabism today, the taliban have attempted to create a utopian society through totalitarian means - which
is the only way a utopia can be achieved (see former soviet union, pol pot's jungle experiments, etc). the taliban have
sought to deny history, assume an ahistorical view of religion and human development, and employ anachronistic
thinking to reject modern concepts of pluralism and tolerance.

apart from their warped take on jihad, there is the universal concern among western observers (read critics) about how
the world is historically viewed and divided by islamic theorists. for the taliban, deobandists, and wahhabists 'the world
is divided into two separate and mutually hostile domains: the dar-al-harb and the dar-al-Islam. The dar-al-harb is the
"abode of war." The dar-al-Islam is the "abode of peace." The dar-al-Islam is the Ummah, the worldwide community of
Muslims. The dar-al-harb is everything else. In the 1980's, the Soviet Union epitomized, for fundamentalist-minded Muslims,
the abode of war. Today, it is the U.S. that symbolizes the dar-al-harb.' (ny times mag, 6/25/00).

 

[StageLeft]

uhh... i believe that is incorrect... we just studied Islamic culture in world history and we talked about jihad. jihad is a holy war declared by a high ranking official (dont remember what they're called...) in the islamic community. in this type of war, any one who fights and dies for the muslims are guaranteed a spot in heaven. also, conversion by force is accepted and encouraged.

however, the islamic religion is a religion of peace and the terrorists (if they were indeed all muslim) only acted on a very radical view of the islamic faith...

Well a friend of mine from Egypt who is practicing Islam says there is _no such thing_ as a holy war. He says its bullsh*t. He said that Islam promotes the things mentioned by geekybear in the second part of her post. I'm not saying there is no such word as Jihad, but my friend did say there was no such thing as a holy war as the phrase is currently being used by the terrorists.

 

[Tripleshot]

I am not confused as to the meaning of Jihad the Al Qaeda want me to believe. Not at all. I'm happy it is not a mystery.I now am an informed and motivated patriot , ready and willing to defend my home,my family,my country.

Muslums should be well advised, I would question there loyalty until this war has been won and the likes of these decietful "muslums" are gone forever. It would be in the best interest of all "good muslums" to assist in rooting this group out of there midst. The air of suspecion is a protective measure, and if the shoe where on the other foot, it would be the same for muslums.

War is not pretty. And neither is the nightly image of the aftermath of 9/11 in NYC. I will never forget,and never forgive. This is Jihad!

 

[DioCassius]

<< we just studied Islamic culture in world history and we talked about jihad. >>


Don't believe enerything they teach you in school. Remember, creationism used to be taught *runs away from creationist flames*. I think the reason jihad has been associated with holy war is that the word jihad is associated with defending Islam and the community in teh Qur'an. The Qur'an permits fighting in self-defense and for the protection of family and property. Link

 

[ikar0s]

Okay, here's your education lesson for today kids.

Jihad is about the preservation of Islam.

There are three Jihads (in order of importance and greatness):

1) Jihad of the heart (AKA The Greater Jihad)
2) Jihad of the tongue
3) Jihad of the sword (AKA The Lesser Jihad)

The main thing to remember is that Jihad is about preservation. You do that through self preservation of religion (accepting Allah as God), through words (acknowledging Islam as your religion, and defending it), and in rare cases where Islam is attacked by force, through the use of war against those who seek to damage Islam.