Jihad

The word jihad literally means to ‘struggle’ or ‘strive’ thus meaning, “doing one’s best proactively to achieve a desired goal,” (Class notes). The Prophet Muhammad uses the term jihad to encompass different context such as “Recognizing the Creator and loving Him the most,” (Qur’an 9:23-24), “Freeing people from tyranny and oppression,” (Qur’an 4:75) and “Having courage and steadfastness to convey the message of Islam,” (Qur’an 41:33). As discussed above, Islam “does not permit nor does it show any kind of tolerance to terrorism” (Class notes) as the word ‘Islam’ have the connotations of peace and it literally means “submission or surrender and the world ‘Muslim’ means one who has surrendered,” (Class notes). On the other hand, a ‘terrorist’ is defined as someone who generates terror in people, causes disorder and initiates chaos in society…

Today, I read an article called Jihad vs. McWorld by Benjamin Barber. Jihad and McWorld are descriptions of two possible futures of our world. Jihad and McWorld are complete opposites. While Jihad illustrates separation and war, McWorld illustrates connection and uniformity. Jihad focuses on breaking our world into smaller pieces. In the article, Barber calls it retribalization, which means returning to division. If the future world has tendencies like Jihab, culture, religion, and values…

Jihad is a very fluid term within Islam. The term can be interpreted in many ways. The word “Jihad” is Arabic in origin and means “exerting the best efforts” or overcoming a “struggle” in order to reach a common goal. Jihad does not necessarily imply violence and does not mean “holy war” but has been interpreted as doing so. Islam is meant to be a religion of peace and respect for all life. There is a constant argue as to what Jihad really means and it is a widely misunderstood term with many…

The difference between Holy war and Jihad is little known to the common community. The truth is revealed when you really try to compare the two. With a little open mindedness, you will be able to see that there 's a lot more difference then you would have originally assumed. To the unaware, Jihad may mean “holy war” but this is far from the truth. In all reality, the translation is literally means “struggle” or “striving” in Arabic. It can refer to the inner struggle for a Muslim or believer…

The military conquests or wars of expansion were motivated by the numerous efforts to abolish paganism among the Arabic peoples and include Arabia into a region under the control of Medina’s political power. The Muslim community was united by their devotion to God and commitment to political consolidation in these efforts. In addition, the wars of expansion were also fueled by commitment of the community to the concept of jihad. While the initial concept of jihad did not include aggressive…

UNDERSTANDING JIHAD IN THE CONTEXT OF HINDU-MUSLIM CONFLICTS In order to understand the concept of “Jihad”, let us first understand the culture it comes from, i.e., Islam. As the Quran states, “The word Islam means, “surrender” to the will of God (Allah in Arabic). Since there is only one God and mankind is one species, the religion that God has ordained for human beings is one.’’ Islam also preaches that God in His mercy had sent messengers to convey His message, to different…

been associated with suicide bombers and most people associate anyone from the Middle East as a suicide bomber or Islamist radical. In the aftermath of 9/11, two myths were routinely promoted. First, suicide terrorism was a new phenomenon. Secondly, it was almost always the province of religious fanatics. In fact, suicide terrorism has existed since ancient times and no society or religion has a monopoly on it (Sheehan 2014, 82). Islamist radicals justify their cause by comparing the act of a…

for being in the Muslim Brotherhood, his ideas became radicalized. His belief that Muslims are “…bound to fight to the death” (Armstrong, 2002) set the foundation for the idea of Martyrdom operations as a noble tactic. Additionally, his belief that Muslims should “…separate themselves from mainstream society…and engage in a violent jihad” (Armstrong, 2002) because his beliefs were so extreme, the Egyptian government executed Qutb in 1966 making him an instant Martyr. (Armstrong, 2002) His…

Al Qaeda is a terror group with a deep religious ideology, which it uses to justify their actions. Al Qaeda has a Salafi-Jihadi ideology, a dogma that has found its beginnings with Jamal al Din al Afghani. Four main terms that formulate this ideology are Salifism, Jihad, Hijra, and Jahiliyya. Al Qaeda engages in what is called a lesser jihad, meaning creating a better community, expanding it or defending it through terror attacks or war. Greater Jihad includes betterment of the community and the…

information is what the audience bases its evaluations and judgements on. Priming of media was used by the Bush administration in the time after sept 11 2001. In the “The mass media and terrorism” David Altheide describes how media corporations artfully created an image of the world has changed by using fear and uncertainty to believe it was necessary to liberate those countries that were supposedly involved in the attacks of 9/11. He goes on to give an example of a blue-collar worker who…