Holy War
I think in America many of us have a misconception of what the word Jihad means. After 9/11 the word Jihad became synonymous with the Muslim ‘Holy War’ against the western world. “What does the Arabic word jihad mean? One answer came last week, when Saddam Hussein had his Islamic leaders appeal to Muslims worldwide to join his jihad to defeat the ‘wicked Americans’ should they attack Iraq; then he himself threatened the United States with jihad. As this suggests, jihad is ‘holy war’. Or, more precisely: It means the legal, compulsory, communal effort to expand the territories ruled by Muslims at the expense of territories ruled by non-Muslims.” (Daniel Pipes, New York Post, December 31, 2002) as expressed in this New York Post article, this was Jihad. It became a word that inspired fear, led us to racially profile and vilify Islam. This was however only one side to the story. It was a definition that had nothing to do with the spiritual meaning of Jihad. It saw one man’s political use of religion to further his own agenda.
We live in a society in which all our beliefs and personal opinions are constantly being influenced and bombarded by those of others, through TV, magazines, radio and personal interaction. Ignorance is like a virus, spreading fear, spreading lies as truths. Unfortunately most people do not see when ignorance and fear are dictating their beliefs. The fear after 9/11 for those of us who were old enough to understand what was happening was something that has been hard to move past. I remember so vividly everything that I did that day, everything emotion I felt. It was like walking through a nightmare that you wanted to wake from, but you couldn’t because it was real. It was something that would never go away and it changed the face of our world and the way we looked at the world. For the first time the United States was filled with the fear of terrorism in a way it had never been before. That fear took on a face, took on a persona and unfortunately it was the face of the Muslim faith. It became the enemy, not the people who had caused such violence. To be Muslim or Islamic was something to be feared, avoided and misunderstood. It was a wave of paranoia and misunderstanding that seemed to sweep through the nation and the media.
I knew logically that it wasn’t the religion itself that was to blame, much like I know logically that it wasn’t the religion of Christianity that was fully to blame for the Inquisition. It was the people that used the shield of religion to justify their actions who were to blame. This was something I logically knew, but for a time I let my fear win. I found myself scared of the Muslim faith, as if it were to blame for the fear and pain. I knew this was wrong and I knew the only way to fight against that fear was to fight against the ignorance I knew I had of Islam. So I studied. I took a world religions class, searched online and fell in love with the purity of the true Islamic faith. Islam is not about violence, it is not about war, it is about becoming submissive to the will of Allah. It was nothing like I had ignorantly believed. Seeing the beauty of the religion lifted my fear and I was able to embrace the beauty of it.
Because I lost the fear, I was able to understand what true Islam was, though I am by no means an expert, I now understood what the Jihad really was. “Essentially Jihad is an effort to practice religion in the face of oppression and persecution. The effort may come in fighting the evil in your own heart, or in standing up to a dictator. Military effort is included as an option, but as a last resort and not “to spread Islam by the sword” as the stereotype would have one believe.” (http://islam.about.com/od/jihad/f/jihad.htm) What it truly meant, how it is about sharing the word of Allah, of sharing the faith, living the faith and not about forcing the will of their religion onto others. It is like the Jehovah Witness’ who go through the neighborhoods, trying to spread their beliefs, trying to bring everyone into the Kingdom. It is not of violence, but like many things that are truly beautiful, the Jihad can be corrupted in the hands of corrupt people. All things, even things of love, can be twisted by evil minds and evil hearts. It is only through understanding and knowledge of the world in which we live, in the religions that are spread across the earth that we will be able to fight against the darkness of corruption and fear. Perhaps someday the fear can be gone and we can stand against those who would use fear and ignorance as their weapons. Until then, we all must share our knowledge and be generous to each other. Perhaps it will start a trend.
Resources:
– Daniel Pipes, New York Post, December 31, 2002, http://www.danielpipes.org/990/what-is-jihad
– http://islam.about.com/od/jihad/f/jihad.htm