A nice little intro, courtesy of About.com. Contrary to all the guff that's usually trotted out on TV, its primary historical meaning has not been all about peaceful inner struggle. In fact, the hadith in which reference is made to "greater jihad" being about one's inner struggle against the "lesser" jihad of war is not counted as anywhere nearly as authoritative* as the ones to be found in this collection. If Osama bin Laden has such widespread support, it owes for the most part to the unsettling fact that his arguments are well-grounded in standard Islamic theology - the very same theology which gives license to the "martyrdom operations" in Israel which virtually none of the Muslim clerics who insist "Islam means peace" are willing to condemn outright.
As for the claim that Islam means "peace", well ... if "peace" can be equated with submission to Muslim rule, then sure, Islam is all about peace after all.
*To be precise, its isnad (roughly, provenance) is weak.
PS: Those with lingering doubts as to what jihad really entails might want to read this as well.
PPS: A glaring illustration of what I'm getting at. As Jonathan Freedland notes, the very same arguments which support bombing pizza parlors in Tel Aviv also support doing the same to Tube stations in London. Bin Laden is only "extreme" in being willing to follow a widespread train of thought through to its logical conclusion.
Three Cheers for Sharia!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4719835.stm
[...The governor of Kano state said a new force of 9,000 uniformed police would enforce the law."Our aim is to be at the forefront of conducting our activities decently and to protect Allah's Sharia," Ibrahim Shekerau told the rally...]
And what's more; its sure to boost the economy of the State!
[..."The government intends to put us out of business by this new law because we can't feed our family by relying on male customers who do not pay as much as women," moped operator Sahabi Malam told AFP news agency...]
And of course, Sharia doesnt apply to Christians, Islam is a religion of Peace and all...
[...While officially it does not apply to them, many say that in practice they are forced to comply...]
Posted by: Chuckles | July 27, 2005 at 03:26 PM