Jihad and Jihadists:

Use of the term Jihadist an example of electronic and print graffiti.

With the recent flurry of cases of young Muslim Americans who were allegedly planning to engage in Jihad, like the five young men from Virginia who were detained for questioning in Pakistan and other cases, there has been extensive use of the term Jihadist to describe these individuals. Electronic and print media use the term Jihadist with abandon many a time link it with the phrase Islamic terrorist. From reporters, “Recruits in jihadist training camps “ (Katharine Houreld, Associated Press), to politicians, “ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots”, (U. S. Rep. Mark Kirk), to op-ed writers and commentary on the electronic media, “Whenever a jihadist volunteers for martyrdom” (Charles Krauthammer) everyone is in to using the term to mean an unreasonable, faith driven extremist, the so called dead-ender. The word Jihadist does not exist in Muslim lexicon. Jihad does.

The word Jihad, which has the letters JHD and the as its root, and its derivatives jahada and jaahada, appear numerous times in the Qur’an and are used to describe “Striving for God with the effort which is His right.” A literal translation of the word Jihad would be “struggle” but the phrase that would capture the spirit of the word would be “a noble struggle.”

For ordinary piety minded Muslims all through the ages, the concept of Jihad is quite straightforward, and can be illustrated by the following anecdote. Once when Muslim soldiers were returning from a military engagement, their commander made the statement that "We are going from a lesser Jihad to a greater Jihad". The soldiers were surprised, I suspect dismayed, and asked which military engagement they were headed for next. The commander replied that by "the greater Jihad" he meant Jihad or struggle against one's inner self (Nafs).

Jihad is to strive for the highest possible goals, struggle against injustice and practice self denial and self control to achieve moral purity. That is how Muslims understood the word and applied it in their personal, social, political and military lives.

There are Muslim apologists who argue that Jihad does not mean “Holy war.” They are right in the sense that it more accurately means “just war.” Violence is to be used in self defense, in a limited manner, and as the absolute last resort and with no loss or injury to innocent life. Nevertheless the history of Muslim rule is replete with examples of those who attempted to sanctify their wars of personal aggrandizement as wars for a noble cause by labeling them Jihad. A few even named their war departments as the “departments of Jihad.”

Those who consider Jihad as a "fight against the whole world", including other Muslims who do not subscribe to a group’s incoherent and exclusivist understanding of Islam, like the al-Qaeda, seriously misunderstand it; they corrupt the concept.

Those who have no use for it in public life and define it strictly as a way of improving self; they diminish the concept.

Then they are those who understand it as a difficult but noble struggle to be conducted with patience, wisdom and with peaceful means, these are most Muslims, they comprehend the proper concept.

This “jihad of the new age” is to fight for rights, justice and dignity in “the realm of ideas, media, and communication,” such as the internet, video, and satellite television is in essence activism. It may used to influence politics and policy, feed the hungry and provide health care for the needy or write a blog.

Those who use the terms Jihad and Jihadist in a derogatory fashion, divorced of its original meaning, its historical and theological context and all of its nuances are either ignorant or lazy or both. Some are bigoted and are indulging in Muslim bashing.

Javeed Akhter, a physician, is founding member of a Chicago based Muslim American think tank “The International Strategy and Policy Institute.”