The distortion of Islam that leads to terrorism | Washington Post

ISIS: pious Muslims or distorters of the "religion of peace"?

Oh  dear! I really thought we'd got past the nonsense excuse for Jihad: that it means "struggle" or "strive" and so all the jihadi violence around the world is a "distortion" of Islam. I thought we'd got past claiming that Islam is actually a "Religion of peace" that's been hijacked by a "tiny minority" of nasties.
But, no, we're not past it. Here at WaPo they give space to a professor who's just found out about this apologia and decides he needs to foist it on us anew. "Jihad" does mean "struggle" It also means — and it most often means — to fight religious war against unbelievers. This second meaning is much more often the reference in Islamic canon.
"Jihad"is, predominantly,  a religious war against we infidels. It is a core part of Islam in its Koran, in its Hadith and in its Islamic jurisprudence.
But here's the thing: even if "jihad", the word, has been twisted by Muslim extremists, even if it's been distorted by Muslim radicals, even if all of that, the point is that it's been distorted and twisted by Muslims who believe they are doing so according to the tenets of Islam. They're not "twisting" or "distorting" Buddhism, or Christianity, or Hinduism. It's Islam, stupid.
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