Pakistan’s Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad endorses jihad, but not terrorism. From HiPakistan, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
Rashid said that the Wana operation would continue until all terrorists were eliminated. He said: “As Muslims, we believe in Jihad. But we should differentiate between Jihad and terrorism. It is the moral duty of our religious and political leaders to differentiate between Jihad and terrorism.”
I’d like to see that too. Some Muslim theorists have postulated that the difference lies between state action and freelancing: they say that jihad can only be waged by governing authorities — i.e., the caliph — and not by vigilante terrorist groups with no official connection to the government of any nation-state. However, some Islamic legal authorities (cf. Sheikh ‘Abd al-Wakil Durubi) specifically stipulate that jihad must continue even in the absence of a caliph: an invitation to establish the kinds of groups we see today worldwide. Also, Rashid must know that many jihadist groups deny that what they are doing is terrorism at all. Yes, the distinction needs to be made, but it needs to be made with a realistic and forthright acknowledgment of just how both words are being used today by radical Muslims.