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Revision as of 08:03, 22 June 2002 by Uriyan (talk | contribs) (Fixed Abraham's braindamage)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Jihad means "effort" in Arabic. It is considered a fundamental principle of Islamic faith, and is sometimes called "The sixth pillar of Islam". In both the Quran, the Hadith and in later Islamic writings, this term has always carried two uses. Both uses are still used by Muslims today.
- A personal, internal struggle
- An Islamic holy war against non-Muslims.
The first use is obvious and is shared by most religions. The second one is, however, unique to Islam and the Islamic culture, and is a major component of many Isalmic policies and conquests throughout the centuries. It is the meaning of Jihad that is most often used in discusions on non religion-related concepts. In particular, most forms of modern Arab terrorism are considered jihad (hence, for instance, the name of the Egyptian fundamentalist organization Islamic Jihad), which forms the basis of the religious justification for it. For example, a person who dies as a part of Jihad in considered a shahid - holy martyr - and is declared to have earnt a place in heaven, even if he committed suicide (which in Isalm, is a major sin).
Jihad as a war against non-Muslims
"Jihad has been decreed to repel aggression and to remove obstructions impeding the propagation of Islam in non-Islamic countries." As Lt. Col. M. M. Qureshi points out in his "Landmarks of Jihad", "only a war which has an ultimate religious purpose can be termed as jihad." (Shayk Muhammad Abu Zahra, Egyptian member of the Academy of Islamic Research)
Speaking at the funeral of an Arab terrorist in Gaza on June 24. 1998, Ahmad Hils, secretary-general of Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement in the occupied West Bank, said: "The path of Jihad, struggle, and heroism continues to be the only way to liberate Palestine and to establish our independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and so it will be in the future'" (Quoted in the Palestinian Arab newspaper Al A'yam, June 25, 1998)
In a statement published in the official PA AI-Hayat AI-Jadida on April 16, 1998, Arafat sent this message to his people: "O my dear ones on the occupied lands, relatives and friends throughout Palestine and the diaspora. my colleagues in struggle and in arms, my colleagues in struggle and in lihad... Intensify the revolution and the blessed intifada... We must burn the ground under the feet of the invaders."
On April 16, 1998, Arafat's official Voice of Palestine radio station broadcast a speech by Marwan Barghouti, chairman of Arafat'ss Fatah movement in the occupied West Bank, in which he said: "The rifle of Fatah, the rifle carried by the Palestinian people which ignited the revolution, will not be buried... Brothers and sisters, I swear, I swear, I swear by the blood of the jihad and the blood of our nation's martyrs."
"March as warriors of Jihad" is a song sung by children on the program "The Children's Club", broadcast on PA Television on February 13, 1998: "Each and every part of your soil I have drenched will all my blood. And we shall march as warriors of Jihad. O my exalted martyr, you are my example."
See also the "Reputation and evaluation" section of Crusade for a discussion of how the terms "Crusade" and "Jihad" are perceived differently in the West and the Islamic world.
Links
- Fact sheet: What is Jihad really? (this article by an appologetical Muslim religious cleric site talks only about Jihad's first, peaceful meaning)
- The Peace Encyclopaedia: Jihad (this article, basing on popular and adhered-to Muslim texts, talks about Jihad in both its meanings, emphasizing the role of the second)