No one with any familiarity with the Qur’an or Islamic tradition, as well as Islamic law, could honestly claim this. Yes, jihad means “struggle,” and there are as many uses of the word in Arabic with as many different connotations as there are of “struggle” in English. However, the primary understanding of jihad in traditional Islamic theology is warfare against unbelievers for the purpose of destroying non-Sharia governments and imposing Sharia.
This is clear from the teachings of the four principal schools of Sunni jurisprudence:
Shafi’i school: A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy, stipulates about jihad that “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only “provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)…while remaining in their ancestral religions.” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).
Of course, there is no caliph today, and hence the oft-repeated claim that the Islamic State (ISIS) and other jihad groups are waging jihad illegitimately, as no state authority has authorized their jihad. But they explain their actions in terms of defensive jihad, which needs no state authority to call it, and becomes “obligatory for everyone” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.3) if a Muslim land is attacked. The end of the defensive jihad, however, is not peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals: ‘Umdat al-Salik specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until “the final descent of Jesus.” After that, “nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus’ descent” (o9.8).
Hanafi school: A Hanafi manual of Islamic law repeats the same injunctions. It insists that people must be called to embrace Islam before being fought, “because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith.” It emphasizes that jihad must not be waged for economic gain, but solely for religious reasons: from the call to Islam “the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save themselves from the troubles of war.”
However, “if the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax [jizya], it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do.” (Al-Hidayah, II.140)
Maliki school: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a Maliki legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes that “in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.” In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with “power politics,” because Islam is “under obligation to gain power over other nations.”
Hanbali school: The great medieval theorist of what is commonly known today as radical or fundamentalist Islam, Ibn Taymiyya (Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya, 1263-1328), was a Hanbali jurist. He directed that “since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought.”
The Shi’ites have substantially the same understanding. This is also taught by modern-day scholars of Islam. Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi scholar of Islamic law of international renown. In his book War and Peace in the Law of Islam, which was published in 1955 and remains one of the most lucid and illuminating works on the subject, Khadduri says this about jihad:
The state which is regarded as the instrument for universalizing a certain religion must perforce be an ever expanding state. The Islamic state, whose principal function was to put God’s law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world….The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state. (P. 51)
Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Shari’ah and Law of the International Islamic University in Islamabad. In his 1994 book The Methodology of Ijtihad, he quotes the twelfth century Maliki jurist Ibn Rushd: “Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book…is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah.” Nyazee concludes: “This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation” of non-Muslims.
“Jihad just means struggle, not holy war – New York City Education Department’s training sessions try to whitewash Jihadi hate crimes,” OpIndia, February 29, 2024:
On Tuesday, 27th February, New York City’s Department of Education (DOE)’s training sessions for teachers on understanding and combating anti-Muslim bias sparked controversy as it propagated that jihad means “struggle” and “effort” rather than a synonym for holy war. Jewish Chronicle first reported the sessions that led to a divide among the educators and the broader community. The Jewish teachers who attended the session in question titled “Understanding Muslim Experiences and Combating Anti-Muslim Bias” criticised the portrayal of concepts such as jihad and the interpretation of Sharia law.
The DOE’s training sessions are part of a more extensive anti-discrimination program where educators learn about different concepts. In these sessions, the educators were informed that jihad primarily signified “struggle” or “effort” rather than being a synonym for holy war. The examples that were used to explain jihad included personal struggles for fitness or building friendships, which practically detached the term from its violent associations with extremist groups. “Jihad is the Muslim concept of striving in the path of God,” the host reportedly said.
As per the New York Post’s report, some of the examples of explaining jihad during the sessions included “My jihad is to never settle short of my best effort”, “My jihad is to not judge people by their cover”, and “My jihad is to build friendship across the aisle”. The portrayal of jihad neglected the complexity of the issue and the historical use of the term to promote violence.
Another educator told the New York Post, “Jihad may mean struggle, but it’s disingenuous to omit that it is commonly used to mean holy war and then to say that the media outlets who use it that way just control the narrative.”
Jewish educators and critics voiced concerns over the interpretation. One of the Jewish teachers remarked that such re-definitions have potential danger to society and said, “They are trying to normalise jihad, but we have to address the elephant in the room; that for many radical Muslims, it means violence. It’s like genocide doesn’t mean genocide anymore, and terrorist means freedom fighter. When someone hears a word like jihad, they now associate it with a struggle to go to the gym rather than violence. How will they be able to spot dangerous and violent ideologies?”
Their sentiments reflected a broader apprehension that DOE might want to inadvertently obscure the understanding of the radical ideology in the classrooms. Moreover, discussion on Sharia law during the sessions also faced criticism as it overlooked the stringent applications in specific regimes. For example, there are documented incidents of brutal punishments and human rights violations where Sharia law is in place. The moderators who conducted the sessions focused on personal religious observance of Sharia. However, educators attending the sessions felt they failed to address the complex realities and criticisms of Sharia law and its broader implications on society.
These sessions are being held in the aftermath of the Palestinian Islamic terrorist organisation Hamas’s terrorist attack in Israel in October 2023, killing over 1,300 people, including women, children, elderly and foreigners. DOE has also planned workshops on antisemitism, but that does not mean that the department should be allowed to water down the real-world implications of jihad and Sharia law.
Jewish teachers living in New York City have reported that they experienced antisemitism and bias, underscoring the concerns about their safety. The lack of action from the administration over such behaviour has led to a significant challenges for the Jewish community.
MyJihad campaign to ‘reclaim jihad’
The “MyJihad” campaign was conceptualised in 2012 by Ahmed Rehad [actually Rehab], executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago. Reportedly, the aim was to reclaim the term from “extremists”. The campaign encouraged Muslims and non-Muslims alike to use the hashtag “MyJihad to reflect the “spiritual struggle” within. One of the phrases used during the campaign was “#MyJihad: modesty is not a weakness. What’s yours?” It featured a Muslim woman wearing a hijab and carrying a dumbbell.
MyJihad’s Facebook page has been running a “Free Palestine” campaign. Interestingly, CAIR is a Hamas-linked organisation that has extensively worked on whitewashing crimes done in the name of jihad. In January 2023, the organisation asked the USA to stop using the term “terrorist watchlist” as it contained primarily Muslim names. In December 2022, CAIR‘s Ibrahim Hooper blamed “Hindutva” and “Islamophobia” in India after a mob of Muslims beat a Muslim couple for watching the Kannada film Kantara. It was propagated that Hindus beat up the couple, but in reality, it was a Muslim mob that attacked them….
Photo By Chalagi7 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48515552
WPM says
Jihad = war
War wither it is open violence ,economic, spiritual ,is to have the “other” those outside of your cult or clan ,your group of “special ” (moslems) people to have the ‘others’ submit to the rules ,laws ,taxes ,to bring those outside your group to a slave three class citizenship in a sharia for” outsiders ” aka non-Moslems.
Mike says
Some years ago, there was a cartoon (I think it was from the UK) that showed a bunch of young kids on the sidewalk. One of those kids, a young boy, was wearing a crucifix necklace, and was pointing in horror at a young girl wearing a hijab.
The cartoon’s creators, a Muslim group, explained that the boy in the cartoon was just wearing “bling,” but the obvious undertone of the image was to portray Christians as Islamophobic bigots.
Imagine if a non-Muslim group made a similar cartoon, but showing a young Muslim kid pointing in horror at another kid who was wearing a Christian cross, or a Hindu Bindi, or Buddhist robes, or a Jewish yarmulke (kippa) or a Sikh turban.
There would be howls of outrage from many Muslims as well as the progressive Left. However, when Christians are stereotyped as anti-Muslim reactionaries, then the response is considerably muted.
Moreover, as far as one can generalize, it’s much safer on average for Muslims in most Western countries, than it is for non-Muslims (such as Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists) in certain Muslim countries like Pakistan, where bigotry against “kuffars” runs rampant.
Hoi Polloi says
On a brighter note, I read the comments on this when it came out and I did not see a single one from an individual who accepts these lies. They’re all fully aware of the truth of islam and the banality of evil in attempts to pretty up jihad.
somehistory says
That is some good news.
Hoi Polloi says
I was heartened.
Bexarkat says
It is probably true, but it depends on one’s definition and applications of “struggle.” Hitler’s Mein Kampf translates to “My Struggle.”
Michalis says
Ah yes, old Adolf’s book. “My struggle.”
Winston Churchill said of it:
Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message. —Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 1, The Gathering Storm (London: Cassell, 1948), 43.
Troybeam says
Reliance of the Traveller: Islamic Sacred Law, Chapter 9 title Jihad. Read it NYC education dept. Learn the truth.
FYI says
A curious thing about traditional islamic theology is allah’s EPIC misunderstanding of what Christians believe
“And when allah saith;O Jesus son of Mary!Didst thou say unto mankind:take me and my mother for two gods besides alah?”
koran 5:116{pickthlall version anyway}
Mary!
O allahDIds’t thou just say MARY is one of the THREE gods.
WHERE DOES allah get MARY!!?
That’s not terribly omniscient of allah{“the knower of all things” koran 2:29?
Question for muslims
Is allah the knower of ALL things?
{Consider all the other errors in the koran and ponder the implication of the answer}
NO
Why are you still in islam?allah is provably NOT OMNISCIENT.Check koran 10:94 for answers
Then islamic “Jesus”{who of course is a MUSLIM,definitely not a Jew}replies to allah and 2It was not mine to utter that which i had no right.If I used to say it,then thou knewest it”
Hoi Polloi says
I appreciate your exposing the serious flaws in their teaching. How galling it must be to them that Jesus is a Jew. No wonder they had to rewrite the whole story.
John Smith says
As always very informative information from FYI. Who knows old allah (his words not mine) inside out.
FYI says
The Dept of Education might like to know that in islam there is a description,an ancient classical Arabic term well known in islamic “scholarship” circles and possibly one of those an alternative name of allah;al mutaffaqirs
the muttaffaqirs/smuttaffaqireen are muslims who don’t grasp the problem of allah suffering from a lack of omniscience.They never get Irony.:Not great at actual scholarship either.They just fiddle the Arabic to hide the errors of allah in holey kooran.
Dr K says
When you hear this sort of bullshit from a government department you just know it has been infiltrated by muslims .
What complete rubbish .
Watch yr backs people !
Sharia Is Shit – Don’t Put Up With It !
Mind watch says
It’s so hard to believe that NYC Dept Edu could possibly say such a thing when attacks and killings of innocents by Muslims is everywhere one looks – I don’t feel there’s any need to consult the Quran for reasons, definitions when Jihad killings is practically common place worldwide. Perhaps the Dept Educ is far to the ‘left’ and is obsequiously doing what is expected from ‘do-gooder’ cowardly people who follow the sheep. I mean they wouldn’t want any Muslims knocking on their door if they said anything else.
And of course, from what I’ve read of the Quran there is little or no ‘theoretical and doctrinal proof’, which apparently is the criteria of a religion. It seems that the mixed up, jumbled, contradictory, stuff in the Quran with its occasional Christian and Pagan influence / extracts is far from ‘Holy’ – mostly contains ‘laws’ of living and of course this nauseating allah business.
How can anyone possibly think they have the right to kill on the basis of this mumbo jumbo book and a killer god that is nothing more than a revolting, repugnant belief?
And they are now enforcing this stuff as though this allah is actually real, and they study this book which is supposed to be proof of Allah when it is nothing more than the outcome of that mania driven ‘meltdown’ that Muhammad supposedly had in that cave that day.
My apologies for this kind of talk but really I just can’t talk sensibly about this nonsense anymore – I just don’t want to dignify that load of nonsense book in any way by even opening the front cover. In any case, it legitimizes killings – why would anyone expect us put it in our bookcase as though it’s of any worth, as though it enhances everyone’s welfare when it just condemns us.
somehistory says
Agreed. I don’t have books praising lying, porn, witchcraft, child sacrifice, mutilation, rape, murder, or other evils; and the mozlum book of demon filth is the probably the worst ever written as it contains all of those things.
Not only does their evil book praise evil, but it commands and demands that mozlums commit those evils.
And the fully devout will kill any infidel saying so.
mgoldberg says
the 18th century Moroccan Sufi “master” Ibn Ajibah from his Koranic commentary. Describing unabashedly the purpose of the humiliating Koranic poll tax [6] (as per Koran 9:29 [6]) of submission for non-Muslims brought under Islamic hegemony by jihad, Ibn Ajibah makes clear the ultimate goal of its imposition was to achieve what he called the death of the “soul”, through the dhimmi’s execution of their own humanity:
[The dhimmi] is commanded to put his soul, good fortune and desires to death. Above all he should kill the love of life, leadership and honor. [The dhimmi] is to invert the longings of his soul, he is to load it down more heavily than it can bear until it is completely submissive. Thereafter nothing will be unbearable for him. He will be indifferent to subjugation or might. Poverty and wealth will be the same to him; praise and insult will be the same; preventing and yielding will be the same; lost and found will be the same. Then, when all things are the same, it [the soul] will be submissive and yield willingly what it should give. [Tafsir ibn ‘Ajibah. Commentary on Q9:29. Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn ‘Ajibah]”
Mike says
The jizyah, like Mafia extortion-protection rackets, is an abomination to God because it violates His commandment, “You shall not steal” as well as “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Some Muslim apologists try to defend the jizyah by saying that Christians and Jews don’t have to serve in the army or give money to Islamic charities. However, in practice Dhimmis are forced to pay 4 or 5 times more in taxes that Muslims are (sometimes even more).
Moreover, people of non-Abrahamic faiths, such as Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Shintoists, Taoists and others are either forced to convert to Islam, or are murdered.
somehistory says
mozlums have made clear that islam’s “path of god” is an evil “path” and their “god” is satan the devil.
Lies, lies and more lies….a part of their warfare to force everyone on earth to follow their “path” and do evil, abhorrent things written in their book of unholy, demonic filth.
Kids who are made to attend school in NY, should be correctly taught by their infidel parents just what the warfare of mozlums is all about. This means the parents have to become educated on the subject of islam….that it is all evil, all of the time. The mozlum “struggle” is against the rest of us and what we think, believe, want; and our way of living.
It seems that the infidels who still have a say in government, are all too willing to allow mozlums to determine what can and cannot be said about islam. No other group is given that power.
We, as humans, should be given the freedom to decide our feelings about other people. The God of the Bible has given instructions on how we are to feel about, and how to respond, to evil, when we observe evil in others. He allows us to make the choice as to whether to listen to His instructions.
I am anti-islam. If the adherents of the evil filth want to see that as anti-mozlum, then so-be-it. All of them are anti-infidel, anti-Christian, anti-Jew and are more than willing to demonstrate those feelings with violence against us.
Jay Lykins, Ph.D., Islamic Studies, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK 1988. says
There are two types of jihad —there is the “greater jihad,” which is an inner struggle of getting in right relationship with Allah.
The other type of jihad is called the “lesser jihad,” which is an outward struggle, usually associated with terrorism or some other form of violence.
Some say there are three types of jihad, that of building community. However, I would include that part of the lesser jihad.
There is also a newer belief that there is only one type of jihad, and the “greater” and “lesser” are incorrect. I disagree with that, as I have seen no supportive evidence of this claim. The two types I mentioned above have been around since the beginning of Islam — 610AD.
somehistory says
Your comment reads like something a devout mozlum would write.
What say you about “stealth jihad”?
And your “greater” sounds very much like mozlums who get really close to their barracks just before murdering…-usually mass-murders…infidels whom the mozlums see as refusing islam.
mozlums don’t believe they will get to their (fake) paradise unless they commit the crimes….just going to the barracks and sticking backsides in the air is not enough. Sounds more like the “greater” is the more important to the devout….and that involves violence.
Peacelover says
Excuse my ignorance and also memory not working well today(often doesn’t),the article mentions Shi’ites but what about Sunni’s? Am I overlooking something?
OLD GUY says
Just keep believing that until the struggle is cutting your head off.
James Lincoln says
According to the feature article:
“NYC Department of Education claims jihad just means struggle, doesn’t involve violence”
Golly gee, I feel so much better now! I was starting to get worried…
WPM says
NYC Department of Education = NYC Department of Islamic Appeasement and Wokism