Jihad - A Holy War Essay -- essays research papers

JihadIt was once a word unfamiliar to American ears. But in recent years it has become all as well familiar. The actions of Moslem competitorys and terrorists have se atomic number 18d the word into American consciousness.Yet stock-still with thousands of innocent civilians killed on American soil by Islamic terrorists, the full moon significance of the Muslim concept of jihad has non been grasped by the American public.In the days after September 11, 2001, American leaders hie to portray Islam as a nonbelligerent religion that had been "hijacked" by a fanatical band of terrorists. One hopes that these assurances were merely tacticalthat nobody was meant to debate them and that they were meant to assure the Muslim initiation that the inevitable American reprisals were not enjoin at their religion as a whole. If the world Muslim federation perceived America as attacking Islam in general therefore the duty of every Muslim to fight for his religionthe duty of jihad would have been invoked on a broad scale. The war against terrorism, instead of boil 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 means "peace." And they tried to portray the terrorists as a fringe group egressside 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 realism Trade Center and the Pentagon? Why are Islamic governments afraid to immortalise "too much" public support for the war against terrorism? Further, why ar e all the governments that covertly support terrorism 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 furious 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 scour if curing Muslim society of its violent tendencies is possible, it would involve ripping out or otherwise neutralizing a tendency that has dominated Muslim destination since the days of its founder.This is not an easy task, for Muslims willing 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 favor of God. The signs of the times draw out that we are, indeed, in for a "clash of civilizations" that will be n any sketch nor bloodless.But what also is known is that God has a plan for memorial and that his grace can work miracles. It is yet possible thatthrough mavin means or anotherGod will bring roughly a more peaceful world in which militant Islam either is not a holy terror 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 practical(prenominal) understanding of the threat we are facing. Until then there can be no illusions about Islam and its endless jihad.