Did anyone see "The Seaon" with U. of Cincy last night?

[Billiken Rich]

Do tell Encyclopedia Bigmaca. Please give us the true definition. Teach Bigmac! Teach!!!!!!!

[Mobile-iken]

From the Islamic glossary at USC:

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/glos...term.JIHAD.html

An article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/2001...jihad0923p5.asp

[Billiken Rich]

"The nouns are Juhd, Mujahid, Jihad, and Ijtihad. The other meanings are: endeavor, strain, exertion, effort, diligence, fighting to defend one's life, land, and religion"

Sounds a lot like my conception of Jihad. How does one defend one's religion???? Killing non-believers seems like a possibility. I know that may be expressly forbiden elsewhere in the Koran but quite frankly in my Christian days I'd have killed you if you were trying to hurt my family despite the "Thou shalt not kill" commandment.

Anything else?

By the way the word "niggardly" has no racist connotation at all. I wouldn't suggest naming your child that.

[Mobile-iken]

And the next paragraph begins with:

Jihad should not be confused with Holy War.

I guess you can believe any definition of the word that you wish to...Keep in mind though that niggardly and blitzkreig are not names, Jihad is.

[Billiken Rich]

We all tend to pick and choose our beliefs based upon certain parts of the Bible, Koran, whatever. "Fighting a defensive war for your religion" is a holy war however you slice it. That sort of thinking lead to the original crusades and all sorts of nastiness since. It isn't a great leap to see this. Given the current times it is unfortunate to have a person in a public place named Jihad.

By the way, Why do radical Muslims like Bin Laden call for "Jihad" against the US? Are they calling for a holy war or a struggle to be good? I realise that there is a big spectrum here between the extremes but It seems that Billiken Roy isn't the only one somewhat confused by the terminology.

[Mobile-iken]

I believe that even some Arabs themselves struggle with the meaning of the word, you definitely are NOT wrong with your thoughts.

This link is a very long article but the most important 2 paragraphs are as follows:

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/498

LAST SPRING, the faculty of Harvard College selected a graduating senior named Zayed Yasin to deliver a speech at the university's commencement exercises in June. When the title of the speech—"My American Jihad"—was announced, it quite naturally aroused questions. Why, it was asked, should Harvard wish to promote the concept of jihad—or "holy war"—just months after thousands of Americans had lost their lives to a jihad carried out by nineteen suicide hijackers acting in the name of Islam? Yasin, a past president of the Harvard Islamic Society, had a ready answer. To connect jihad to warfare, he said, was to misunderstand it. Rather, "in the Muslim tradition, jihad represents a struggle to do the right thing." His own purpose, Yasin added, was to "reclaim the word for its true meaning, which is inner struggle."

In the speech itself, Yasin would elaborate on this point:

Jihad, in its truest and purest form, the form to which all Muslims aspire, is the determination to do right, to do justice even against your own interests. It is an individual struggle for personal moral behavior. Especially today, it is a struggle that exists on many levels: self-purification and awareness, public service and social justice. On a global scale, it is a struggle involving people of all ages, colors, and creeds, for control of the Big Decisions: not only who controls what piece of land, but more importantly who gets medicine, who can eat.