The meaning and Concepts of Jihad Essay

Associating Islam with violence is a false impression that the Western public has long cultivated about this religion. An example of this misconception is that Islam is a religion spread by the sword, meaning that Muslims went from one end of the world to the other, conquering nations and forcing the inhabitants to either convert or die. The truth is that Islam spread through the expansion of the Ottoman empire, not that people were forced to convert or die. A modern day example of the Islam=violence misconception is Saddam Hussein. Although Hussein is of the Islamic faith, not all of his actions necessarily represent Islamic beliefs.

Islam is a monotheistic faith. Monotheistic means to believe in one God. The Muslims believe that Allah is the true God and Muhammad is the profit. They live by what they believe Allah and Muhammad want them to do. Islam actually means to submit freely to the one true God. The people who believe in Islam live by serving their God. Part of the reason why the Muslims portrayed 9/11 was because they believe that Islam is the only true religion. The United States was founded under Christianity and since they believe Islam is the true religion they decided to serve and defended their belief. The Muslims who portrayed the events were members of the Taliban and al Qaeda. The terrorist group was run by Osama bin Laden. All of the terrorist that were involved with 9/11 believed in the Islamic faith and they defended their beliefs through the use of

The islamic people are like other every body, They are not perfect and innocent in everything they try to do always falls back on terrorism.

Islam is not the only religion that use violence for instance, the Christian use violence to destroy Islam. In the article crusades the idea of violence was demonstrated when pope urban II send innumerable amount of solder to “Rise in a spirit of cruelty against the jewish people scattered through the cities and slaughtered ’the women, also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever gender and sex.” The soldier did not stop there they also “Destroy the houses, synagogue of the jews and divided among themselves a very, large, amount of money [that once belonged to the jews].” Christians were influenced by Pope Urban II to assassinate million of people. It is estimated that about 1.7 million of people died during the crusades.

On September 11 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda members" hijacked four airlines and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States of America" (“9/11 Attacks”,1).The attacks resulted in the death of approximately 3000 people. This was an American Horror. The whole country was in fear because of this event. After that, everything changed.  According to the article "Islam in America Post 9/11",  Al-Qaeda were not the only ones to blame, the whole Islamic religion was to blame for this Terror (2012). Muslims got a bad name and image. Islam became known for Terror instead of peace. Post 9/11 things for Muslims were not going great and the media just made it

Living in America, we are given the freedom to practice the faith of our choice, but at the same time it does not give us the right to violate our laws or to organize, finance or develop a group whose motives are to attack and destroy the country they claim to be a citizen of, while practicing that faith or religion. We are now in the midst of a movement where homegrown American jihad will be the destruction of the United States.

Jihadi Salafism is a medieval interpretation of Islam that was created when Europeans and East Asians threatened Arabs (TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY, 2015). Jihadi can be tracked back most clearly too Arab reform movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Salafi-jihad is more similar to an ideology than to a religion. Salafi-jihadists try to encourage Muslims to understand that their religion has been on the decrease. In encouraging this they urge Muslims to recognize that the tide has turned, and that Islam is in a constant state of decline in religious, political, military, economic, and cultural terms (Moghadam, 2008). Salafis see themselves as the only “true” Muslims, and they have assumed the authority to denounce fellow

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.

After the attack of 9/11 many American citizens sought out an answer to why one would hijack a plane and run it into the Twin Towers, killing millions. According to the Huffpost, Islam became the main reason for the attack and furthermore labeled religion as the inspiration for many terroristic attacks (Gibson, 1). According to many Muslims, however, the attacks are anti-Islamic because the Quran states not to harm civilians who are not involved with war and to avoid it at all possible times (PBS, 3). The conflict between Muslims and Americans is growing and many issues in the Middle East has become the focus for religious terrorism.

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.

We see this occurrence in modern news all the time, our media likes to associate the word jihad with terrorists or radicals in the Islamic community without fully understanding the more well known definition of the word.

The concept of Jihad was not widely known in the western world before the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Since then, the word has been woven into what our media and government feed us along with notions of Terrorism, Suicide Bombings, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and now, Jihad. Our society hears exhortations resounding from the Middle East calling the people to rise up in Jihad and beat back the imperialist Americans. Yet, if we try to peel back all of these complex layers of information we can we attempt to find out what Jihad really means. Webster’s Dictionary defines Jihad as “a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty or a crusade for a principle or belief” (1). Often, media depicts

Arguably the most misunderstood term in the religion of Islam, Jihad could mean one of two things: a struggle for or against something or a Holy War against a nation. The idea of Jihad came about when Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), most praised and recognized Prophet of Islam, wanted to spread Islam. Today, Jihad is a symbol of destruction and terrorism. It is frequently seen in the headlines of Western media as a demeaning term meaning an all-out explosive battle has been ensuing between a dominant Muslim country (or group) and another nation. It is necessary for those who use this word for it to be understood and to allow people to see the significance of this word to all Muslims.