Osama bin Laden and innumerable other Islamic jihadists have already made this connection, but that’s fine. It’s only “objectionable” when a non-Muslim does it.
“Chidambaram equates Jihad with terrorism,” from TCN News, December 25:
New Delhi: In an address to Intelligence Bureau, Home Minister P. Chidambaram equated Jihad with terrorism and said that its objective is war against unbelievers.
Chidambaram uttered highly objectionable statements against Jihad addressing IB officers in Delhi while delivering 22nd Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture on Wedenesday in Delhi.
He said that Jihad is a kind of war that emerged after the end of Cold War in 1989.
He’s only about 1370 years off on that one.
He termed Jihad as “a war or struggle against unbelievers” completely distorting the meaning of Islamic principle of Jihad. Home minister added that Jihad is waged by a number of groups that owe their allegiance to Islam and said that “Jihad employs terror as an instrument to achieve its objectives” which is “directed against all” and usually claims innocent people as its victims.
In defining jihad, a Shafi’i manual of Islamic law endorsed by the most prestigious institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, says that the leader of the Muslims “makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax,” and cites Koran 9:29 in support of this idea: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden-who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book-until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o9.8)
Curiously, Chidambaram made a distinction between Crusades and Jihad terming the former as “a conventional war” while Jihad uses terrorism as instrument to overthrow the established authority.
Giving sole credit to Jihad for inventing terrorism, Chidambaram who is responsible for security and peace in all of India, said that the tactics of the jihadis have been copies by militants belonging to other groups including Hindu militants. He did not identify the Hindu groups….
“Giving sole credit to Jihad for inventing terrorism…” That would be asinine, if he really did that. But the idea that jihad as warfare against unbelievers is an offensive coinage of “Islamophobes” is a manipulative fiction that by now should be familiar to Jihad Watch readers.