Islam, Terrorism, Jihad and Media Essay

“Fight in the name of God and in the ‘path of god’. Combat those who disbelieve in God.” The quote above is an excerpt from Matthew Gordon’s book, “The Rise of Islam”. Throughout the course of history, many religions have had a profound effect on western civilization. During the early 5th century a religion arose that had an extremely important impact on western civilization. The Arabic prophet Muhammad founded the religion known today as Islam. Violence, diplomacy, Arabic tradition, and public law played a vital role in the rise and conquest of Islam. These four key elements that fostered the rise of Islam helped establish one of the largest religions in western civilization.

Islam extremists believe in "jihad" which is interpreted by traditional clerics and Muslim scholars, the word speaks of spiritual struggle against sin. This can include fighting an attacker, but when it does, it has specific rules that bar indiscriminate killing. The word can also refer to the believer's internal striving for self-improvement. But within the dictionary of Islamic extremists, it has connoted acts of exceptional violence against governments that are deemed as non-Muslim or inadequately Islamic. This has led to include the launching of deliberate attacks against innocent civilians, essentially, terrorism. From the perspective of totalitarian ideologues, societies that reject the call for total revolutionary transformation are

Extremist Muslims interpret jihad as war and believe they are obligated to install sharia, a form

My definition or impression of the word “Jihad” before I watch these videos is a struggle, or a war, or a fight between someone.

However, there are also teachings which permit the use of force in certain situations. Jihad is a central teaching of Islam that means to strive or to struggle and in its proper usage refers mostly to the essential struggle in overcoming obstacles to submission to Allah. It can also refer to the military struggle to achieve religious freedom for Muslims, however, a war of aggression is not permitted in Islam. For Muslims, true peace can only exist where there is justice. Therefore, Islam justifies war against oppression which prevent people from living in freedom.

Around 610 CE, the Prophet Muhammad’s journeyed to an isolated cave and received holy messages from the archangel Gabriel. These simple messages flourished over time into the Islamic faith and were compiled to create the Qur’an - the scripture of Islam. During a time of polytheistic supremacy, the teachings of Muhammad struggled to be established. “[T]he Qur’an emphasizes that while conversion to Islam should never be performed by force, its faith and moral strictures should be practiced in a society that abides by them and seeks to implement them in all human spheres of activity”, thus, followers of Muhammad employed manners of force to converted believers of other faith systems (Ellwood 587). This is an example of misinterpreting the holy scriptures. Although the use of force increased the boundaries of early Islam exponentially, the Qur’an’s insistence of pacifism was negated. To appease adopted converts sanctioned into Islam, some of their practices were accepted, for example, veiling women with a hijab, chador, or burqa are not innately Muslim, these practices were accepted from Persian people who were conquered by Muslims. Within their growing domain, Muslims accentuated the avoidance of idolatry and the Five Pillars which state to confess your faith, pray five times a day, give alms to the poor, fast during the month of Ramadan, and partake in the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Jihad, or the struggle against the evils of the world and inner sin, is known as the sixth pillar of Islam and is also a commonly misinterpreted doctrine. Greater jihad or the internal struggle against the evils of oneself is the more important element of jihad, however, lesser jihad or the struggle to defeat external evils can be misinterpreted into justifying the killing of non-Muslims, violence against those who don’t acknowledge the Qur’an, and can even be used to legitimize a Holy War. Once again,

This quotation from the Koran is powerful in the simple fact that it embodies several forms of

The Qur'an is the fundamental text for all Muslims as it is believed to contain the revelation of Allah, complete and unaltered as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The secondary sacred text is the Hadith which refers to the collection of traditions, words and deeds of the prophet Muhammad who lived in accordance to the beliefs of Islam in the way which Allah intended. The Qur'an refers to Islam as 'the path of peace' and it is due to this importance placed upon peace that the Qur’an also declares that there be no aggressive war permitted in Islam. Peace is achieved through submission to Allah and this is reinforced through daily prayer (salat).

The quran helps muhammad teach islam about god. They pray five times a day. They give charity to the poor. The muslims face the city of mecca to pray. Jihad is a personal duty for the muslims.

In chapter six, “The Two Jihads”, of Ruthven’s book, she describes jihad as a collective obligation for Muslims, distinct from the individual duties such as prayer. This religious doctrine was formed during a time when Islamic states were at war with multiple nations and experiencing a rapid expansion. Its standards were somewhat similar to those of Roman principles of just war, rules such as sparing women, children, the sick and the weak, and those who are “People of the Book”. On the other hand, the doctrine is split into two different sectors. The sphere of Islam, or dar al-islam, and the sphere of War, otherwise known as dar al-harb.

Jihad – a dispute or war between followers of Islam faith and those who do not follow the Islam faith; a struggle within a Muslim between good and evil (Dictionary)

Yet even with thousands of innocent civilians killed on American soil by Islamic terrorists, the full significance of the Muslim concept of jihad has not been grasped by the American public.

Jihad as a political word was first recorded during the struggle of the Meccan establishment by Prophet Mohammed. The early movement of Muslims, first under their Prophet and later his passing, advanced both religion and political dynamics. In addition to the five tenets of faith, the organizations of the community were centered on structure, movements, decision-making systems and political agendas. The five pillars of the faith are: witness, prayer, pilgrimage, alms, fasting. Jihad main interest is the global jihad and they were looking for pure jihad. They have continued to dominate the scene in South Asia and the Middle East, their influence has reduced in the western diaspora.

However, Jihad’s age old association with violence was nearly unavoidable. Struggle can rather easily be translated into a call to conduct an external Jihad for the Islamic faith. For example, a verse in the Qu’ran states, “go forth, light armed and heavy armed, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah” (Church 111). This verse clearly pairs Jihad (“strive”) with external violence (“go forth, light armed and heavy armed”) (Church 111). Indeed, violent Jihad was an obvious necessity because the Muslim community had always been a religious and political faction. Many lost their lives to spread and defend the newfound faith in Arabia and eventually to locations far beyond. Jihad’s association with violence and religious duty made it an ideal expression for Muslims to justify “lesser Jihad,” or the notion of external conflict, centered on the idea of spreading the faith (Church 112).

There are many interpretations of the word Jihad, but the most common literal translation from Arabic to English is "struggle." Many interpret the idea of a Jihad as a holy war. While holy war may be part of the struggle of Muslims, it is not the entirety of Jihad. In its primary sense, Jihad is an internal struggle to rid oneself of debased actions or inclinations and devote