Jihad - A Holy War Essay -- essays research papers

JihadIt was once a word unfamiliar to American ears. But in recent age it has become all too familiar. The actions of Muslim militants and terrorists nominate seared the word into American consciousness.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.In the days after September 11, 2001, American leading rushed to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that had been "hijacked" by a fanatical band of terrorists. One hopes that these assurances were merely tacticalthat nobody was meant to opine them and that they were meant to assure the Muslim creation that the inevitable American reprisals were not directed at their religion as a whole. If the world Muslim community comprehend America as attacking Islam in general then the duty of every Muslim to fight for his religionthe duty of jihadwould have been invoked on a broad scale. The w ar against terrorism, instead of simmering with occasional flare-ups, like the Cold War, would have boiled over into a global conflagration, with the Muslim countries of the world1.2 billion strongmobilizing against America and the West.Muslim apologists also rushed forward to assure the public that Islam was a peaceful religion. They disingenuously declared that the word Islam instrument "peace." And they tried to portray the terrorists as a fringe group outside the mainstream of Islam.These were lies.The usual meaning of Islam in Arabic is not "peace" but "submission." And if the terrorists were so far outside the mainstream, why did Muslims all over the world burst into joyful, spontaneous celebrations when the hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Why are Islamic governments xenophobic to show "too much" public support for the war against terrorism? Further, why are all the governments that covertly support ter rorism centered in the Muslim world?The truth is that Islam is not a religion of peace. This is not to say that every Muslim is violent at heart. Many are not. Muslims have the same aspirations for living peaceful lives that people have the world over. But they also have the same potential for violence as others, and Islam as a religion and an ideology seeks to exploit that potential. Thoug... ...volutionary movements. The conflict with militant Islam may last a long timecenturies, potentiallysince even if curing Muslim ordination of its violent tendencies is possible, it would involve ripping out or otherwise neutralizing a tendency that has dominated Muslim culture since the days of its founder.This is not an easy task, for Muslims unbidden to make the change would be portrayed as traitors to their religion, amid renewed calls to practice Islam in its original, pure, and more violent form in order to regain the raise of god. The signs of the times suggest that we are, indeed, in for a "clash of civilizations" that will be neither brief nor bloodless.But what also is known is that God has a be after for history and that his grace can work miracles. It is yet possible thatthrough one means or anotherGod will bring more or less a more peaceful world in which militant Islam either is not a threat or nowhere near the threat that it is today.If this is to happen, our cooperation with Gods grace will require prayer, courage, resourcefulness, and a realistic understanding of the threat we are facing. Until then there can be no illusions active Islam and its endless jihad.