serious misinterpretation of jihad

Submitted by Hester (Netherlands), Oct 4, 2005 at 15:41

The way jihad is understood in western media is all about armed fights connected with radical islam....I think and feel that is really a great pity...especcially after 9-11and the assasination of the filmeditor Theo van Gogh...the way i teach jihad to my students of which are 95 % muslim is this, The meaning of Jihad in general is: putting effort on the path of your religion or faith. How the Prophet Mohammed spoke of this is that there is an distincion within the meaning of Jihad...according to one hadith (comment on Koran) the spoke of the great and the small Jihad. The great jihad is the most important and is terribly ignored in the media...this means individual struggle...dealing with your personal sins...'nafs' You should devellop yourself as a good person! The second is the struggle for justice in society, just like socialist democrats do. The third is the political jihad and means selfdefense, only if another attacs you first! This is what the Prophet Mohammed meant by small jihad,as i have understood it. Now the offensive jihad is put extra to that and in that sense...and is favorite of radical pro and con-jihaddist. But This is not the real issue, nobody talks about the big thing, the big Jihad: Why? Is it not spicy enough? I say in dutch: Naffers denk aan je nafs!!!!!!! ( naffers: northafricans - is a amsterdam policecode-...nafs: inner sins) Even the grand newspaper de Volkskrant in Holland didn't react on this big jihad issue when i confronted them....my students cannot understand how a non-muslim can understand this issue from islam....i cannot understand why media misinterprets the meaning of the big Jihad so massively by only talking about the small one....really this happens as well in the paper of mister Pipes....om ah hum Hester- teacher of philosophy/religion/lifestance in Amsterdam, Holland

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".