Jihad, of course, means "struggle," not "holy war." Nonetheless, the traditional understanding of the term, based firmly on the Qur'an and Sunnah, and echoed by every school of Islamic jurisprudence, does call for holy war. If Badawi really wants to challenge that, he will have to mount a worldwide educational effort, which will probably involve him receiving death threats. He could even be actually killed. I expect that rather than mounting such an effort, Badawi will accomplish what he wants to accomplish with this proposal -- the gulling of a few more Westerners -- and then he will allow it to fall quietly by the wayside.
From AFP, with thanks to DFS:
KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Thursday appealed for the concept of "jihad" to lose its warlike connotations and be used instead to fight the problems facing the world.Although commonly thought to mean "holy war", the term which has taken on negative associations particularly since the September 11 attacks on the United States, actually means to struggle towards a goal.
Abdullah, who promotes a moderate form of Islam in multicultural Malaysia, called on people from all races and religions to forget their differences and focus on addressing contemporary global problems.
Let's take a closer look at moderate, multicultural Malaysia, shall we?
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's minorities are banding together to put up a united front against what they fear is a steady encroachment of Sharia (Islamic law) into their lives.
Two from Badawi himself, just so you know where he's coming from:
The great moderate Badawi continues:
"The concept of jihad must be given a broader interpretation, covering all aspects of life including the pursuit of knowledge, the mastery of science and technology, and economic activity," he said according to Bernama news agency....
Come on, Badawi. It already has that, all over the Islamic world. Every Muslim schoolchild knows that jihad in Arabic has applications virtually as broad as struggle in English. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a Department of Agricultural Jihad. Traditional Islamic theology distinguishes five kinds of jihad: besides jihad bis seyf (jihad of the sword), there is jihad bil yad (jihad of the hand, which can apply to virtually any activity that strengthens Islam, including most of the ones Badawi mentions); jihad bil qalam (jihad of the pen, that is, apologetic work defending Islam); jihad bil lisan (jihad of the tongue, also apologetic work defending Islam, this time verbally); and jihad bin nafs, or jihad of the heart, the spiritual struggle within the believer's soul.
Badawi goes on:
And he called on all communities to reject any extremism that emphasises differences and preaches the politics of fear and hate."It must be addressed because peace and stability of the world is at stake, as Christians and Muslims make up more than half of the world's population," he said.
"The West should treat Islam the way it wants Islam to treat the West. Both sides should accept each other as equals. Respect, reciprocity and equality - these are the essential prerequisites for a harmonious relationship."
Yes, of course, it is all the fault of the West. But what will he do to compel Muslims to reject the jihad ideology of Islamic supremacism? Nothing, of course.
Does the person in question even understands what " jihad " truly means?
"The West should treat Islam the way it wants Islam to treat the West. Both sides should accept each other as equals. Respect, reciprocity and equality - these are the essential prerequisites for a harmonious relationship."
Well isn't this a bit rich. BadOwwee has the gall to demand that we respect Islam as an equal. I don't know what rock you slithered out from Mr. BadOwwee, but in the real world, respect is earned, not given out like a toothless UN resolution condemning Israel.
Islam's lack of tolerance for everything un-Islamic condemns itself to Dhimmi status amongst the world's cultures. That's right BadOwwee, Islam is not only second rate, it is so corrupt and evil generating, it should be thrown away like a used bed pan laying next to a hospitalized malaria patient.
It has failed the live and let live test, the very test you are demanding the west treats Islam with. Sorry, but no can do. In the real world, we have doctrine called tough love that is used to correct the behaviour of a bad child. Islam is that bad child and needs to be put in a corner for a sorely needed time out.
This world has become too small for Islam's behavour to go unchecked. So BadOwwee, there will be no respect given to your religion until your civilization learns the live and let live rule.
Reciprocation. Now that is one thing the west is slowly learning to give Islam. Where should we start? Let's start with your country Mr. BadOwwee.
http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/Ramza60224.htm
I know these are true because I have a Chinese Malaysian friend who was forced to flee your country. Now, How would you like us to reciprocate Mr. BadOwwee? I'm not sure we are capable at present of giving what is due to you other than put you in that corner.
Would your co-religionists put up with the conditions you have forced onto your minorities? No, there would have been jihad declared long ago. So maybe it’s time the Chinese declared a jihad on your country to give you that reciprocation you so truly desire and so truly deserve.
The "science and technology" he has in mind is that of Mahathir Mohamed in his famous O.I.C. address. Not further investigation into the structure of DNA or attempts at a unified field theory. No -- military technology is what Muslims have in mind when they talk about "science." Everything Badawi has said merely reflects his worry that for some reason, the Muslims have been unable to hide from all Infidels -- did they expect to? did they expect that we would all, permanently, accept their jihad of the pen, jihad of the tongue? -- the real tenets of Islam, the real nature of Islam, the attitudes and atmospherics of Islam?
As for this call for the West to treat Islam as it would like to be treated -- is he crazy? Has not the West allowed into its very heart, into its Arabia, into England, Italy, and France, and into the rest of Western Europe, tens of millions of Muslims, and allowed the building, sometimes on state land and often with the encouragmeent of government officials, mosques in Paris, in Rome, in London, and all over? Have not the Infidel taxpayers been paying for thse Muslims, offering them all the benefits of a welfare state, and in such countries as Denmark and Holland, the most famously generous in their benefits, the most famously tolerant in their attitudes, been rewarded by local Muslims with murder, and threats of murder, against politicla figures and against others (e.g. all those at the newspaper Jyllands-Posten) and, indeed, have not local Muslims in Denmark worked assiduously, in some places, to make sure that the entire Muslim world issues what amounts to a collective death threat against "all Danes"?
No, this is more nonsense from Badawi. It means nothing except an attempt once more to buy time, and to keep fooling the apparently infinitely foolish remnant of Infidels. But the more one learns, the more intolerable such soothing falsehoods become, and the more sinister they appear.
Here is what Badawi should do -- and do right away:
1) Allow, in Malaysia, the Dayaks and other real "Bumiputra" or Sons of the Soil, to practice the Christianity they wish to poractice.
2) Stop the Bumiputra system in Malaysia, which discriminates against Chinese and Hindus, in every way, and costs them money. It is merely a disguised Jizyah, and the Jizyah tax imposed on non-Muslism should everywhere in Muslim countries be stopped, and decried by government officials. Go ahead -- decry it, and stop it. You have it in your power. It will be a sign, a small sign, that just possibly you are moving slowly toward a recognition of the intolerable attitudes that the Bumiputra system reveals and embodies.
3) Repeal all the Malaysian laws that favor Muslims over non-Muslims. That includes the schoools, and scholarship programs abroad, that are awarded only to Muslims, and which non-Muslims have no chance of ever getting.
Start there.
Then we'll begin to have the tiniest notion that perhaps you actually mean just a little of what you claim.
Otherwise, more nonsense and lies. And the more times we hear these obvious farragos of nonsense and lies, the more suspicious we become. Right now, vigilant and intelligent Infidels do not trust a single person who calls himself Muslim. Why should they?
I was in Malaysia 12 or 15 years ago, there used to be muslim girls with skimpy clothes and headscarves hooning around with their boyfriends on mopeds, just goes to show how FAST the decline into islamic facism has been. Indo won't make it either probably.
Hugh, I've asked for help from you before, but late in the posts, and my pleas have gone unanswered. What references would you suggest for one wanting to learn about Malaysia, particularly it's pre-Muslim history? It should go without saying that I don't read Bahasa, so they need to be in English. You see, my children are half-Malay (well, 1/4, their nenek is a chinese convert to Islam), and it's of singular importance to me to give them a sense of that heritage that isn't the Islamic drivel they get otherwise. Robert has my email if you wish to reply directly, or at least through him.
Thanks.
And Meredith, there still are Muslim girls "hooning" (I like the sound of that, whatever it means) around on bikes with sexy, form-fitting clothes, although they usually don't show much skin. Same for the Chinese, only a little more skin. All in all, Malaysia is still pretty open and tolerant, but there is a growing salafist influence at the lower levels, and it's the holier-than-thous who become self-appointed morals police (the regular police are just corrupt). Ethnic tensions count as well as religious ones, but for the time being, incidents such as the kissing arrest are infrequent (what makes it stand out to me is the location, in downtown KL in Petronas Plaza, about as westernized a "hang-out" spot in KL as one can find). My knowledge is limited, but I've seen embarassingly exposed western girls wander through Malaysia entirely unhindered, albeit thoroughly gawked at (if you dress like a billboard, don't be surprised if people look).
ll-
I just read yesterday a book (1966) on Chinese customs and folk beliefs, specifically in Malaysia though one assumes the same would be generally true -- oneiromancy, feng-shui, Four Happinesses, even a very nice chart about the meaning of a sneeze depending on the particular two-hour period in which you do the sneezing -- but that won't help. So I will look into it in the next few days; send your email to Robert.
Hugh, thanks, I sent him one yesterday so he should have it if needed.
Do people remember that Malaysia banned the Danish cartoons? Anyone found possessing them will be charged in court. They never mention the three extra cartoons added by the Danish Imams.
And Malaysia banned many Christian books, especially if they deal with Islam.
And apostates of Islam, while not executed, are imprisoned and given "counseling" so that they can return to Islam.
And Malaysia govt, under competition with the Muslim opposition party, have over the past two decades went on a more and more conservative trend.
Badawi says jihad is commonly thought to mean "holy war". In fact the dictionary defines jihad as a holy war waged by Muslims against infidels.
Muslims use a practice called "turnspeak", meaning to say one thing and mean or do something else. Arafat was famous for this. Western nations call this lying.
In this war of words, we have become sloppy and complacent in allowing others to redefine terms.Suicide murders become freedom fighters. Jihad becomes a search for personal enlightenment.
We must fight this dissembling by Muslims, liberals, and the apathetic. Figuratively speaking, hold their feet to the fire and make them and make them say what they actually mean.
LLurker,
Thats really interesting that you say people there are still relaxed, it sounds like Indonesia.
Do you think people are somewhat innocent to the sinister intentions of islam?
Are they hoping to get it out of Malaysia?
Good luck finding some history for your kids?
Islam is going to treat the western democracies exactly the way it has treated every other non-Islamic part of the world. No amount of smoke-and-mirrors taqqiya-propaganda coming out of Malaysian politicans' mouths will change that reality.
While reading BLOOD FROM STONES I read that several years ago a ship belonging to the Malaysian-owned Oriental Timber Company was observed unloading armamaments to Islamic insurgent forces at a Western African port (West Africa has a fairly high percentage of Muslims and considerable bloodshed going on).
This Malaysian MP can sugarcoat Malaysian jihad if he wants. But it's the content that matters. That content is Islamic mass murder any way you (or the jihadists) slice it.