Jihad in Islam

Islam, one of the world's great monotheistic religions, has Saudi Arabia as its heartland. The followers of Islam, called Muslims, believe in God - in Arabic, Allah - and that Muhammad is His Prophet.(Embassy of Saudi Arabia, 2006) Jihad means “holy struggle” which literally means to struggle in the way of god. It sometimes is referred to as the sixth pillar of the Islamic religion. The reason to this is because the characteristics of jihad are like the five pillars. Jihad is also one of the 10 practices of the religion. (Esposito, 2005) This means that muslims have to practice jihad once in their life. According to the Islamic Jihad, a proper reading of the Qur’an and an understanding of history would lead to the conclusion that Palestine is the focus of the religio-historical confrontation between the Muslims and their eternal enemies, the Jews. (Tel Aviv University, 2002) The second meaning, associated with mystics, rejects the legal definition of jihad as armed conflict and tells Muslims to withdraw from the worldly concerns to achieve spiritual depth. Jihad in the sense of territorial expansion has always been a central aspect of Muslim life. (Pipes, 2002)

According to Daniel Pipes in 2002, Saddam Hussein had his Islamic leaders appeal to Muslims worldwide to join his jihad to defeat the "wicked Americans" should they attack Iraq; then he himself threatened the United States with jihad. The Islamic religion means when they say jihad is to have their own inner struggle with themselves in life but the media and western societies portray this as holy war on another country. Islamic people go into jihad based on their religious practices because jihad is the way of Allah. The abandonment of jihad is also a source of punishment from Allah. Allah says in the Qur'an, “If you go not forth [for jihad] He will afflict you with a painful doom, and will choose instead of you a folk other than you. You cannot harm Him at all. Allah is able to do all things” (al-Taubah 39). (Zarabozo, J, 2002) In the Islamic religion it is hard to separate politics from religious leaders. In the Holy Qur'an many verses clearly show the importance of Jihad (struggling for the sake of Allah) in the life of a Muslim and urges the believers to take part in this noble duty. Allah mentions jihad in conjunction with imam or belief, paradise and His pleasure. Any person who claims to be a sincere believer in Allah should understand the obligation of jihad. (Zarabozo, J, 2002) Though jihad may be a part of the answer to the problems of the ummah, it is an extremely important part. Jihad is to offer ourselves to Allah for His Cause. Indeed, every person should according to Islam prepare himself/herself for jihad and every person should eagerly and patiently wait for the day when Allah will call them to show their willingness to sacrifice their lives.( Fahmy. A, 1997)

People like Saddam Hussein say that jihad is total warfare and western societies see this and they think the same way and then we think Islamic people