Jihad Misunderstood

One of the least understood words in the world is “Jihad”.

In the United States, we typically hear comments like this:

  • Jihad means “holy war”
  • Jihad means Muslims want to conquer the world and make everyone a Muslim
  • Jihad encourages suicide bombings and terrorist attacks
  • Muslims might say “jihad” means “struggle” but when there are no non-Muslims in the room they are really talking about holy war

All of these perceptions are false.

Jihad in Arabic means “exertion”.  It is also popularly translated as “struggle”.  Both are correct, but “exertion” really captures the flavor of the word, while “struggle” sometimes has a negative meaning owing to English connotations (Hitler’s “My Struggle” and Communist phrases about “struggle”, neither of which have anything to do with Islam).

The Qu’ran sanctions warfare only in very specific circumstances:

  • in defense of community, person, or property
  • against legitimate combatants (i.e., soldiers, not women and children)
  • only while the attack persists

Christians may find this very similar to “just war” theory, though it’s interesting to note that this proceeds St. Thomas Aquinas’s work by 500 years.

In Islam, scholars refer to the “lesser” and the “greater” jihad.  The “lesser” jihad is the defensive warfare described above.  “Greater” jihad the striving within towards more total submission to God and perfection of our lives.  Once after winning a battle, Muhammed (pbuh) remarked to his followers that now the more difficult jihad would begin.

The word “jihad” has sometimes been misappropriated by terrorists and political leaders to justify their immoral actions.  But their use of the term has no basis in Islam.  There is unfortunately a long history in all religions of justifying violence and aggression in all religions.

For example:

  • In Christianity, we saw the Crusades, decades of violence in Northern Ireland, the “Christian Patriot” movement in the U.S., the Ku Klux Klan, etc.
  • The Jewish Defense League conducted a bombing campaign in the U.S., and there were many incidents of terrorism in the history of Zionism.
  • In South Asia, Hindu extremists have conducted a series of bombings in the last few years
  • Sikh extremism and terrorism is well-documented
  • Recently a book highlighted many centuries of Buddhist violence, and many Americans remember the self-immolation suicides during the Viet Nam war.

Does this mean that all Christians, Jews, Sihks, etc. are terrorists?  Of course not.  Indeed, it’s fair to say that the relationship between a typical Christian and the Ku Klux Klan is similar to the relationship between a typical Muslim and Al-Qaeda.

Does this mean that all Christians, Jews, Sihks, etc. think violent warfare is legitimate?  Of course not.

Does this mean that all Muslims are terrorists?  Does this mean that all Muslims think violent warfare is legitimate?  You see our point.

By the way, lest we forget, the number of people killed in the name of atheist ideologies (e.g., Communism, Fascism, Maoism, even Western democracy) dwarfs those killed in the name of any religion.