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Jihad
[dʒiˈhaːd]
OED Definition
Jihad: Islam. A religious war of Muslims against unbelievers, inculcated as a duty by the Qur’an and traditions.
Jihadi: A. n. A person who advocates or takes part in a jihad; a jihadist.
Oxford Dictionary of Islam Definition
Jihad: From the Arabic root meaning “to strive,” “to exert,” “to fight”; exact meaning depends on context. May express a struggle against one’s evil inclinations, an exertion to convert unbelievers, or a struggle for the moral betterment of the Islamic community. Today often used without any religious connotation, with a meaning more or less equivalent to the English word crusade (as in “a crusade against drugs”). [1]
Term Variants: Jihadism, Jihadist
How this term should be used
We recommend that any journalist takes care when using the term jihad given its multiple meanings.
Given “Jihad” is often understood amongst ordinary Muslims with a non-violent meaning as part of their everyday struggle to become a better Muslim, conflation of jihad with violence without an explanation is not recommended – therefore the following terms should be avoided: jihadi terrorism, jihadists, global jihad, worldwide jihad, “Jihadi Jack” etc.
Terror attacks cannot and should not be described as unqualified acts of “jihad” given they breach the rules of “jihad”. Journalists who use the term “Jihad” to refer to the actions of terrorist groups are giving these groups the legitimacy that they have been denied by the majority of Muslims. It would be possible to say that a terrorist has claimed he is engaging in jihad in line with the principles of Islam, but that this claim has no standing amongst ordinary Muslims.
Furthermore, context could be provided. For example, hundreds of Muslim scholars wrote an open letter rejecting the claim of Daesh to jihad. [2] Seventy thousand scholars issued a fatwa against Daesh in December 2015. [3] There are many works that detail Muslim responses to the legitimacy of the “Jihad” being waged by Daesh and Al-Qaeda. [4]
Sometimes the term “jihad” can be dropped e.g. jihad terrorism -> terrorism. On other occasions, an alternative term may work better. For example, instead of “jihad terror group”, “terrorist death cult” may be a better description of Daesh.
The term “jihad” is from the Arabic root of striving or exerting oneself. In Muslim circles, the term can be used to describe a struggle to better oneself against evil inclinations, or an external struggle for justice and against oppression, albeit limited by specified rules.
Source information:
| Source | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3099401/Tony-Blair-finally-quits-Middle-East-peace-envoy-claims-no-credibility-region.html |
| Country/date | GB (15-05-27) |
| Title | Tony Blair quits as Middle East peace envoy after conflicts of interest … |
Expanded context:
Indeed, there is a direct link between the collapse of Iraq into feuding regions and the rise of the jihad terror group ISIS which has brutally exploited the power vacuum.
In this example, Michael Burleigh refers to ISIS as the “jihad terror group”, giving credence to Daesh’s claim that its actions are “jihad”.
Source information:
| Source | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/23/the-culture-that-makes-a-jihadi-thomas-hegghammer-interview-poetry-militancy |
| Country/date | GB (17-07-23) |
| Title | The art of making a jihadist |
Expanded context:
With the attacks in London and Manchester, and the vicious battles to retake the cities of Mosul and Raqqa from Isis in Iraq and Syria, the bloody reality of global jihad has been a prominent news story for some time.
The term “global jihad” is used to describe a specific global terror threat, conflating jihad with terrorism. There is no attempt to distinguish the claim to jihad by Daesh and those inspired by Daesh, from jihad as understood by most Muslims. An alternative in this case, could have been to use the term “Daesh inspired terrorism across the globe”.
Source information:
| Source | https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uks-most-wanted-jihadist-could-21911707 |
| Country/date | GB (20-04-22) |
| Title | UK’s most wanted jihadist could have been plotting new attacks before arrest. |
Expanded context:
The terrorist was once a key suspect in the hunt for Jihadi John, real name was Mohammed Emwazi, and both men were brought up in West London.
The nickname “Jihadi John” was used extensively in the British media to refer to a specific terrorist with a British accent featured in many Daesh videos, and was coined before the name of the terrorist was known. The term persisted even after the terrorist’s name, Mohammed Emwazi, was uncovered.
The term jihadi is used here as a synonym for terrorist driven by the faith of Islam.
Source information:
| Source | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7149437/40-000-police-protect-tourist-hotspots-Spain-amid-fears-summer-terror-attack.html |
| Country/date | GB (19-06-17) |
| Title | 40,000 police officers will be sent to protect tourist hotspots in Spain amid fears of a summer terror attack
|
Expanded context:
Officers will have six key duties, according to Spanish media, one of which is ‘obtaining information that may lead to the detection of a potential attack of a terrorist nature’ – with a particular focus on jihadi terrorism.
Here we encounter the term “Jihadi Terrorism”, which is a common descriptor attached to the actions of worldwide terror groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Again, the term jihadi is used as a synonym for terrorist activity driven by the faith of Islam.
Source information:
| Source | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2330622/Why-Drummer-Rigbys-killers-charged-treason.html |
| Country/date | GB (13-05-24) |
| Title | Why Drummer Rigby’s killers should be charged with treason |
Expanded context:
But it was the murder of a man who was targeted precisely because he was a member of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. His killers, and those who support them, regard what they did as an act of holy war, or jihad.
Here, we see the term Jihad being used explicitly to mean “holy war”.
There are many research studies on the term “jihad” and its usage.2
Examples of non-Muslims who have discussed the term, include Bernard Lewis, for whom Jihad refers to the duty of those who have accepted Allah’s message to “convert or at least to subjugate those who have not.”3 Rudolph Peters disagrees with this assessment, instead arguing that, “the primary aim of the jihad is not, as it was often supposed in the older European literature, the conversion by force of unbelievers, but the expansion – and also defence – of the Islamic state.”4 For David Cook, meanwhile, the doctrine of Jihad is grounded in an apocalyptic vision of the future. “It is clear why the connection with the end of the world had to be maintained in jihad literature. Without this final date in mind, it would have been difficult for Muslim fighters to summon up the necessary energy to achieve the conquests.”5
Firestone argues very differently6: “The semantic meaning of the Arabic term jihad has no relation to holy war or even war in general. It derives, rather from the root j.h.d., the meaning of which is to strive, exert oneself, or take extraordinary pains. Jihad is a verbal noun of the third Arabic form of the root jahada, which is defined classically as “exerting one’s utmost power, efforts, endeavors, or ability in contending with an object of disapprobation.” Such an object is often categorized in the literature as deriving from one of three sources: a visible enemy, the devil, and aspects of one’s own self. There are, therefore, many kinds of jihad, and most have nothing to do with warfare. “Jihad of the heart,” for example, denotes struggle against one’s own sinful inclinations, while “jihad of the tongue” requires speaking on behalf of the good and forbidding evil.”7
According to the Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School, “Muslims are sharply divided among themselves in their understandings of the term”8 . Maher Hathout, author of Jihad vs. Terrorism, argues that Jihad is a “range of activities all based on the Arabic meaning of the word ‘exerted effort.’ In the Koran it’s projected as exerting effort to change oneself, and also in certain situations physically standing against oppressors if that’s the only way”9
When discussing Islamic law, the classical scholars have a specific perspective. According to Mohammad Hassan Khalil, “in the specific context of Islamic law, jihad typically denotes an armed struggle against outsiders.”10 Hallaq echoes this point when he writes that, “In legal works, jihad…always referred to military campaigns by the Abode of Islam against the Abode of War, this latter described as territory inhabited and ruled by non-Muslims.”11
The legal discussion is not limited to a mere recognition of the term jihad as an armed struggle. The struggle must be just, with limits on who is able to call for “jihad” and who the target can be: civilians and civilian infrastructure are explicitly called out as outside the scope of “jihad” with this meaning.
According to Hallaq, most jurists agree that:
- Jihad cannot be launched without prior notice.
- It is forbidden to kill anyone who is not trained in the use of weapons.
- Torture and mutilation are forbidden.
- It is not permitted to kill prisoners without first presenting them before the imam12
Therefore, acts of terror can never be reasonably described as Jihad because to do so is to suggest first, that these acts have the support of the majority of Muslims, on whom Jihad is an obligation,13 and second, that the rules of Jihad allow for the killing of civilians. Even Cook, who does not ostensibly reject the categorisation of terrorists as Jihadists, admits that: “It is clear that globalist radical Muslims have had a great deal of difficulty justifying the legality (according to Islamic law) of the September 11 attacks…”14
Under these stringent criteria, it is near impossible to argue that acts such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 or indeed, any other form of indiscriminate violence in which civilians are targeted is Jihad. Indeed, even according to Cook: “because of the limitations of the ideology of radical Islam, many Muslims are either hostile or indifferent to these concerns and are unwilling to be recruited. Radical Islam makes a very obvious point of declaring large numbers of apparent Muslims apostate.”15
Within spiritual discussions (outside legal discourse), and amongst the ordinary populace today, the term “jihad” also has a broader meaning of an “inner struggle” on the path to becoming a better person, described as “the bigger jihad”.
According to Hallaq, one of the major turning points in the development of the doctrine of Jihad came as a result of foreign occupation. “The reality of colonialism on the one hand subverted the theory of jihad, and, on the other, provoked unprecedented reactions on the part of many Muslims…”16
As a result of these historical shifts, Hallaq argues, the classical theory of Jihad was supplanted by two rather different branches of thought. “It would seem that the modernist camp tamed the classical theory beyond recognition, while the Islamist side radically altered both its form and content. In either case, therefore, jihad as Muslims conceived it in theory and practice for over a millennium no longer exists.”17
Therefore, to neglect to mention that the classical theory of Jihad in legal texts is about warfare (albeit within prescribed limits), is a form of historical revisionism; but then so is the narrow delineation of Jihad as simply a form of warfare. In fact, even to suggest that the word “Jihad” was initially understood as waging war and has since evolved is not self-evident. Muhammad (PBUH) is himself credited with saying that the “best form of Jihad is a word of justice spoken to a tyrant.”18
In fact, there is a strong argument that the reason “Jihad” is used by so many scholars to mean “peaceful struggle” is that in the modern world of hybrid personal identities, and nation states organised on lines other than religious, the classical theory of “Jihad” as warfare has become largely obsolete. With the exception of resistance to Soviet Occupation in Afghanistan and perhaps Chechnya, which by their nature cannot be described as expansionist, it is difficult to think of modern-day wars that have been widely described as “Jihad.”
