Jihad - Misunderstanding of term

Submitted by Sarab (United States), Sep 17, 2012 at 15:25

I am a Christian and do a lot of research to understand other people and their religions. So here is the answer to Jihad, which is a loaded term and very misunderstood.

Jihad means struggle. The most common definition today is "struggle of the self, the soul and the spirit. Jihad as used by EXTREMIST Muslims, who I believe are in the minority, is used to refer to killing and war against non-Muslims and in many cases Muslims too who do not believe as the EXTREMISTS do.

Jihad centuries ago, when the Arab's land was being taken away from them and they were trying to get it back or protect their land, the term was used to define war and killing. However, among most tolerant and sane Muslims today it means "struggle of the self, the soul and the spirit." In other words an internal struggle, not an overtly war and killing struggle.

Not all Christians worship the same God and not all Muslims worship the same God. Just like EXTREMIST Christians do, EXTREMIST Muslims are misguided or use their interpretations to justity their negative view of people and how to destroy innocent people of any race or religion who do not agree with their EXTREMIST agenda.

As Hillary Clinton put it so well - religions have undergone attack over the centuries. violence doesn't confirm one's beliefs, however, peaceful coexistence shows that one's religion is unshakeable.

She also stated in a speech that she doesn't think people who overthrew tyrants during the Arab Spring want to be governed by tyrannical mobs. People are EXTREMISTS who are doing what is being done today over the movie made in the U.S. not condoned by the U.S. government. There is also mass unemployment in many countries in the Middle East where populations in some countries of people 25 years of age and under are 60 - 70 - 80 - 90% of the population. There is frustration among these young people who are unemployed that change is not happening fast enough and they don't have jobs.

Do your research please.

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