The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #112062   Message #2369997
Posted By: Wolfgang
19-Jun-08 - 01:43 PM
Thread Name: BS: Free speech, eh?
Subject: RE: BS: Free speech, eh?
"Jihad" and derived forms of this word are found in the Koran 35 times. In 29 of these 35 times the meaning in the context is "armed fight".

Yes, "inner struggle" also happens to be one meaning of "jihad".

Most Jihad is not violent?

In reading Muslim literature - both contemporary and classical - one can see that the evidence for the primacy of spiritual jihad is negligible. Today it is certain that no Muslim, writing in a non-Western language (such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu), would ever make claims that jihad is primarily nonviolent or has been superceded by the spiritual jihad. Such claims are made solely by Western scholars, primarily those who study Sufism and/or work in interfaith dialogue,
and by Muslim apologists who are trying to present Islam in the most innocuous manner possible. Presentations along these lines are ideological in tone and should be discounted for their bias and deliberate ignorance of the Muslim sources and attitudes toward the subject.
(D. Cook, Understanding Jihad, p. 165f)

Wolfgang