“ Jihad. What needs to be known of it”



“ On 1 September 2005, Al Jazeeri broadcast a tape recording of a statement made by Muhammad Sidique Khan, one of the London bombers which said: "I and thousands like me are forsaking everything for what we believe. Our drive and motivation don't come from tangible commodities that this world has to offer. Our religion is Islam obedience to the one true God and following the footsteps of the final prophet messenger." (Daniel, 510) These are the words of one of the prophet’s messenger, a soldier of Jihad. They are the followers of the prophet Mohammed, who is their one and true God. Islam is a very important part of their lives; they are raised as true Muslims, therefore, they ought to fight for their beliefs. Young men and women are brought to this world for one reason, to serve to Allah, meaning self-sacrificing themselves until the last point. Strong courage is what characterizes these people.


Their beliefs are more expandable in what they call Jihad, or known as “a holy war against the infidels”. The purpose of this war according to them is to spread the religion of Allah in the world. They have a cause to do anything to bring Islam into those societies, who are not religious, or not Islamic. Their cause is holy, they are God’s Messengers that chose to fight to deliver his word to people who struggle in believing in God, and to people who have excluded God from their lives, even if that means using aggression. These people have started their battle against the non Islamic societies (West societies) long time ago, and they are moving on with new people, raised and educated as the new soldiers of Jihad; these people are being instructed to give their life for this holy cause, if possible. They believe that it is their duty to do anything possible to transform the non-believers in believers and followers of Allah.


The followers of the Prophet Mohammed, who are fighting in the holy cause of Jihad, have many ways of practicing the holy war against West. These people in very young age are instructed and educated with the Islamist ideology. Some of them come from normal families, but that is just one part of their background profile. At a very young age they were sometimes gathered together by extremist Islamic groups in different Islamic countries, were they were taught and raised based on these groups’ ideology. These people are instructed to take away their own life, or the lives of others, because of the Holy cause, Jihad.


However, there are many cases of Islamic extremists were they have been raised in intellectual families, and they have gone to the best schools and colleges, but yet the extremist ideology took part in them by engaging in activities with Islamic extremist groups.


Their courage is something to admire. Giving their life for a cause they believe in, is something just a few people do. These people, not only are able to self-sacrifice, but they also dedicate their entire life to Islam and Jihad. A very good example of all this is the life and background of Hassan al-Turabi. At a young age he went to Khartoum, Sudan to study law. During that period of time Sudan was going through a difficult period, so the country needed young man with new western point of views to solve the problems Sudan had. Differently from many other young people in that time in Sudan, who got an approach toward the western cultures to figure out the problems of their country, Hassan al-Turabi got a different approach by joining the Muslim Brotherhood. Later on, al-Turabi took over the Muslim Brotherhood, and expanded his Islamic ideas even more.
During his life he had a very close relationship
with Osama bin - Laden, but the most important thing is that he was a mentor for Ayman al - Zawahiri. Al Zawahiri’s group Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Bin Laden’s group emerged together to create the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders. Now days the views of Hassan al – Turabi over Islam and Jihad direct Ayman al – Zawahiri and Osama bin – Laden on the actions they take. (Cline, Profile and Biography Hassan al-Turabi)


The example of Hassan al – Turabi shows how the followers of the prophet Mohammed in our times, start to form their point of views and ideologies in relation with Islam and Jihad. It also shows how these people actually do not want to be just some people who you cannot trust when they talk about their ideology. They actually put a lot of effort in their education, and most of the times they major in subjects related to the society, religion and sometimes sciences. When these people proclaim their ideas, they know exactly what are they talking about, so you do not listen just to some people who do not have minimal education. Another thing I noticed from the example is that these people who have these strong feelings and ideas over Jihad, are really organized in groups within them. They have different groups and sometimes cooperate together for their goals.


Despite, all their merits and their ideology the Islamic extremists actually have another approach to Jihad, and Islam, which is quite different and surprising from what I presented before. Even though, they claim to be an important part of this religion, by practicing what Allah teaches, and following his orders and steps, actually they have their own ideology, which is far different from what Prophet Mohammed proclaims in Koran. What is seems is that they actually take the meaning of Koran and the words of Allah and give another meaning to it, their own meaning, by distorting the real meaning.


The meaning of jihad is transformed by the Islamic militants; the words “fight against the nonbelievers” in Jihad have a connotation into it, it does not mean real fight against people who do not believe, but it means to show to the people who do not believe, who Allah is and what Islam is about, but the Islamic extremist were being too literal and transformed it. These Islamic extremists have distorted the real meaning of their religion, Islam, in order to justify their terrorist actions.


It is very shameful that some people use religion, in order to justify their terrorist actions. They take away the lives millions of innocent people just because of their political views, or issues they have with the governments of different countries, and the justification is: Islam. Extremist groups terrorize and kill millions of innocent people just because they want to give a lesson to the government of a certain country. Individuals are not responsible for the actions that a government takes; therefore, they should not be targets of the extremist terrorist groups. Nevertheless, they should not to be terrorized and killed, because some Islamic extremist ideologist want to give them a lesson for the fact that they chose to not believe in God, or because another approach different from Islam.

Works Cited
Daniel, Wallace L. "Islam and the "Clash of Civilizations." Journal of Church & State 2006: 509+. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Nov. 2010.