Wait a minute! Wikipedia assures me that jihad is “an Arabic word which literally means striving or struggling, especially with a praiseworthy aim.” And Google says that it is a “a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam,” adding that it is “the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin.” Encyclopedia Britannica says jihad is “a meritorious struggle or effort. The exact meaning of the term jihād depends on context; it has often been erroneously translated in the West as ‘holy war.’ Jihad, particularly in the religious and ethical realm, primarily refers to the human struggle to promote what is right and to prevent what is wrong.”
These definitions are all strictly correct and yet misleading in various ways. Wikipedia’s doesn’t give any idea that this “striving or struggling” could involve warfare. It does touch on this farther down in its explanation, but the part I quoted is all that one sees when searching for “jihad” at Google. Google’s first definition is correct, but doesn’t give any indication that this struggle could involve violence, and the second definition gives the opposite impression. Britannica is even worse: it is true that jihad does not mean “holy war”; it means “struggle.” But leading with this and never mentioning that there can actually be a martial component to jihad is actively misleading.
Here Fadl Abu Talib fulminates against Israel and threatens jihad in a sense that obviously means warfare. Where did he get this idea? From the Islamic doctrines of jihad that are presented above. Fadl Abu Talib believes that attacking Israel is a “praiseworthy aim,” and a “fight against the enemies of Islam,” and a “meritorious struggle or effort.” But mainstream analysts and Western politicians just write him and others like him off as twisting and hijacking the religion of peace.
Meanwhile, note that he believes that Israel is a “hostile entity to our Islamic nation.” The Islamic aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict is universally ignored, except among Muslims. Find out why it is so important in The Palestinian Delusion.
“‘We will not hesitate to declare jihad against Israel’: Houthis,” Al Masdar News, January 11, 2021:
BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:10 P.M.) – A member of the political bureau of the Ansarallah Movement Yemen, Fadl Abu Talib, warned that “if the Israeli enemy gets involved in any foolishness against the people of Yemen, the people will not hesitate to declare jihad for the sake of God against this enemy.”
Abu Talib said that the Ansarallah forces “will not hesitate to direct the harshest possible strikes to target very sensitive targets against the Israeli enemy entity.”
Regarding the Israeli statements to monitor the situation in Yemen, he said: “The statements of the Zionist war criminals have been repeated, which talk about Yemen as a threat to the Zionist entity. Therefore, we would like to recall here what Sayyed Abdul-Malek Badreddine Al-Houthi said, may God protect him, that our position regarding hostility to Israel as a usurper and hostile entity to our Islamic nation is a principled, humanitarian, ethical and religious commitment in which we meet with the free and honorable of our Islamic nation.”
He warned: “If the Israeli enemy gets involved in any folly against our people, our people will not hesitate to declare jihad for the sake of God against this enemy, just as we will not hesitate to direct the harshest possible blows to target very sensitive targets on the entity of the Israeli enemy.”
Abu Talib also commented on a report by the Haaretz newspaper, which stated that Israel will soon be able to use the military base that will be completed on the Yemeni island of Socotra.
“The two regimes, the Saudi and Emirati, are just tools for the Americans and the Israelis in the aggression against the Yemeni people, which was mainly aimed at achieving American and Israeli goals and ambitions. Therefore, Saudi Arabia and the UAE seek to find a foothold and direct control for Washington and Israel on Yemeni soil, especially the strategic Yemeni island of Socotra, which is occupied by the UAE, and its tool called the Transitional Council, where it operates with the UAE and the Zionist entity to establish Zionist military and intelligence bases.”…
Infidel says
The Houthis are totally deluded. Israel has zero presence or involvement w/ their country: if they should be livid against anybody, it should be the Saudis and their Arab stooges. Instead of focusing solely on them, they rant against a country that has nothing to do w/ them. The Houthis would probably do better in this war if they let go of their loyalty to Iran and focused solely on opposing the Saudis. It would also weaken any non-Arab support for the Saudis in this conflict
James Lincoln says
Lieutenant Frank Drebin The Naked Gun (1988)
“That’s why I took my vacation in Beirut…. to find some peace.” (sarc/off)
Walter Sieruk says
Regardless of what Ansarullah says the actual,real ,usurper and hostile entities are the Islamic terror organizations of the violent and murderous jihad groups such a Hamas , Hezbollah and so forth.
l.”
The jihadists who make up Hamas ,hezbollah ,etc. are so ignorant that they neither know nor understand that that all they Muslims stooge terror organizations, that are all fated to fail in their Islamic agenda of destroying the State of Israel and replacing with Islamic “state.”
The reason that they will lose in the end and lose hard is because the members of those jihad terror entities are striving against the Will of God. The members who compose those Islamic terror groups might be too ignorant to know this; nevertheless, the truth is the God had given all land that now composes the State of Israel, including all of the West Bank, to the Jewish people. This may be found in the Bible, as seen in, for example, Genesis 28:13-15. 35:10-12. Deuteronomy 32:48,49. Psalm 105:7-11. 135:4. In other words the Jews have all this land by Divine Right. Furthermore, the Jewish people should have this land by historic rights as shown in First Kings 4:20,21, 24,25. 8:55, 56.
Still, in all fairness, there is still one way Muslim members who make up Hezbollah and Hamas to convince God to change His Mind about being so much for Israel and then cause Him to turn His back on Israel and then have that nation be no more. That way is for the members of the jihad organizations to gather together and then change the laws of astrophysics, including those laws of astrophysics the control the sun, the moon and the stars. For God had declared in His Word, the Bible, in Jeremiah 31:35,36. “Thus saith the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night…The Lord of host is His name. If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.”
gravenimage says
Houthis: Israel is ‘usurper and hostile entity to our Islamic nation…the people will not hesitate to declare jihad’
……………….
Never mind that it is not Israelis but Sunni Muslims who are killing Shia Houthis–who cares? Pious Muslims always hate Jews the most.
gregbeetham says
Who cares what the finer points about the cult of Satan’s Jihad are, China has a system that appears to be working, let’s go with that.
Infidel says
China’s system forcibly keeps muslims captured within China, rather than allow them to migrate to similar countries like Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan. Better system is Burma’s, who have simply expelled their muslim fifth columnists to Bangladesh, and forgotten about them
Walter Sieruk says
The Bible in Proverbs 135:4 reads “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself. Israel for His special treasure.” [N.K.J.V.]
]
Therefore , Houthis is greatly overruled by none other than God, Himself.
Rob Porter says
What Robert reveals here about Wikipedia, Google and Encyclopedia Britannic reminds me of why I very early developed a contempt for the contemporary Western World. Why? Because it has grown cowardly, gutless, spineless, politically correct, and thus dishonest. No matter how many Westerners and others are brutally murdered by Muslim jihadists, Western publications cannot bring themselves to tell the truth about Islam. Someone might get upset and be accused of phoney Islamophobia!
White, of British descent, I should have felt some attachment to the West, but growing up in South Africa under apartheid developed within me a different perspective. My family and I never supported apartheid and for ten years I through newspapers bluntly expressed my opposition. White-ruled South Africa was hated by the West. Racism and human rights abuses were the reasons, or so Western countries declared. But not lost on me were simultaneous Western World double standards, selective morality and disgraceful hypocrisy. South Africa was under the gun, not least from Sweden, Canada and Australia, but meanwhile, while South Africa was a pariah for its policies, after China invading Tibet, caused the death of about 2 million Tibetans and destroyed their culture, the Western World said little or nothing. China did not become a pariah! In Sudan the Muslim government in Khartoum was responsible for its troops in southern Sudan murdering more than 2 million, mostly Christians but also animists and other non-Muslims – and the Western World said little or nothing. Canada said nothing and then Amnesty International revealed that a Canadian oil company, Talisman, was pumping oil in southern Sudan, so Ottawa did not want to spoil ‘a good thing’ and human rights was put ‘on the back burner’. In 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor and committed genocide. Again Western condemnation was negligible and Canada was silent – and then Amnesty International revealed that Canadians were the biggest foreign investors in Indonesia’s economy. So again human rights got short shrift from Canada and the Western World.
Events following the Tianamen Square said it all about Western cowardice, utter lack of principle and its hypocrisy over South Africa no matter how misguide and wrong apartheid had been. Oh yes horror was expressed, Western governments suspended relations with Beijing and recalled their ambassadors, Canada’s Earle Drake to Ottawa where for ten 10 days behind-doors discussions were held between government members and business people. Then all of them emerged to parrot pathetically, “There’s nothing we can do about it.” Rubbish! Of course they could, with trade boycotts and sanctions, but that would have spoilt a good thing, dollars would be lost, so to hell with human rights and decency. Ambassadors crawled back to Beijing and grovelled. You’d have thought that Western countries had committed a crime, so in no time all was well. The sucking up was a wonder to behold! For you’re a jolly good fellow, raise your toasts and smoke a cigars – while Beijing’s police and troops continued to hunt down dissenters!
And now the West hasn’t the guts to confront Islam over its perverted ideology and violence, or its publications accurately described jihad for what it is.
gravenimage says
South Africa was basically considered part of the West. Third-world nations–especially Muslim countries–seldom come in for much criticism.
Rob Porter says
gravenimage – You’re right, it was. It was a Western ally during two world wars, fought with distinction and Churchill’s closest confidant during WWII was Field Marshall Jan Smuts, but in 1948 the National Party gained power and introduced apartheid. That’s when things began to go sour. Nevertheless, while apartheid was a thoroughly unjust ideology, Britain, for example couldn’t care less about India’s cruel caste system, or Islam’s vicious apartheid-like system, yet it condemned apartheid and South Africa, and ignored other transgressors.
sidney penny says
The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process
Should it be
The “Palestinian” Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process ?