Written by Sydney Barakat at theantimedia.org
When Americans—or non-Muslims in general—hear the word “jihad,” they immediately associate it with extremist groups such as ISIL, Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban, as well as their terrorist acts in the name of “Allah.” They might also envision these groups enforcing their corrupted version of Islam onto people of other faiths. However, this misconstrued definition of the word “jihad” is one of the most widespread misconceptions about Islam.
Jihad—in the most pure, Quranic sense of the word—does not instruct Muslims to wage war against non-Muslims or non-believers. It does not promote the use of violence, period. It literally means, “struggling or striving.”
For most Muslims, jihad represents “internal as well as external efforts to be a good Muslim or believer, as well as working to inform people about the faith of Islam.” Therefore, Jihad is the way that a Muslim strives to be as pure as possible in mind, body, and spirit to avoid straying from their faith, to keep God in mind, and to do good deeds—with one’s actions as well as with one’s money (i.e. giving to charity).
Violence in regards to performing jihad is not permitted unless it is in self-defense: “When used in the narrower sense of fighting against a visible enemy, jihad means fighting only in self-defense, when the initiative of attack is taken by the other party.”
Similar to Islam, one can say that Christianity, too, maintains an essence of jihad. Christians, as guided by the Bible, should fight one’s compulsions to commit sin or to act in a way that would go against the teachings of Jesus Christ. As Huffington Post states, “struggling is a fundamental element of the Christian faith. (Jesus) told his disciples to ‘strive to enter in at the narrow gate…’, which mirrors the popular Muslim notion of staying on the ‘straight path’ and maintaining dedication to practicing Islam to the best of ones[sic] ability.”
Western media is largely to blame for these misconceptions about Islam— including the meaning of jihad. Like every other major faith, Islam and its teachings do not promote violence. Rather, extremists take the religion they “follow” and manipulate it to fit their own agendas. From there, the corporate-owned mainstream media further perpetuates the falsified “faith-based” ideologies and allows the public at large to continue believing things that are simply untrue.
It’s easier for Americans to believe that extremist maniacs are acting in the name of a religion opposite of their own than to realize and confront the fact that it is—in many ways—due to the actions of their country that paved the way for these terrorist groups to exist and thrive in the first place.
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Great article. It’s entirely true that America’s foreign “interests” created a situation that enables them to thrive. We are on THEIR soil. Imagine a reversal and foreign troops on American soil? Every grandma would be taking popshots from her kitchen window. We reap what we sow.
Finally somebody to step up bring light to this Matter! We Muslims are nnot the Terorists.. The Terrorists are Not Muslims because killing Children in a School is not what The Teachings of Prophet (pbuh) teach us!
I agree the US has created some of these groups but their actions are guided by a fundamentalist form of Islam.If they were fundamentalist Jain extremists, they would be straining their water to not drink a bug or watching every stop lest they kill an ant. The trouble with fundamentalist Islam is the fundamentals of Islam.More Muslims believe the punishment for apostasy should be death than believe in free choice of belief.Islam needs to have the “Enlightenment” that the West went through ending the Dark Ages so that modern civility will automatically over rule mid-evil practices.The belief that martyrdom is so honorable and celebrated encourages suicide bombers.Whatever it takes to make All of ISLAM non-violent we need to encourage it not pretend it doesn’t exist as part of the teachings themselves.
I’ve been saying this for years and have been correcting/informing news companies such as CNN, BBC, and others, but obviously, there’s an agenda to corrupt specific words and have anti-Islamic associations with certain words. Needless to say, these media companies don’t give a F!
Its very easy to write an article without showing any facts or references whatsoever. here is a definition of jihad direct from the koran surah 2:216 Muhsin Khan
Jihad (holy fighting in Allah’s Cause) is ordained for you (Muslims) though you dislike it, and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know.
doesn’t sound much like an internal struggle to me, anyone have a factual rebuttal?
True,
I have always observed this. Dont be slow america. Must come out of our comfort zones there is no more ignoring the issues. If you think this country is safe forever your wrong stand up. Do something before it is to late. Perhaps it already is
I can’t see how the correct definition of the word matters, it’s still used by muslims as an excuse to kill, and non-muslims have a right to know that. Saying that jihad is an innocent word would be a form of censorship.