by Staff Sgt. Amy Parr
Air Force Print News
10/10/01 - WASHINGTON -- Webster's Dictionary defines "jihad," or holy war, as a war by Muslims against unbelievers or enemies of Islam, carried out as a religious duty.
The word jihad sends shivers down the spines of many Westerners, bringing to mind images of violence and oppression, said Chaplain (Capt.) Hamza Al-Mubarak from the 81st Training Wing at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.
However, a jihad can exist without violence, Al-Mubarak said.
"By simply looking into the sources of Islam, one is able to know that the true meaning of jihad is to strive and make effort in the way of Allah," he said. "Thus striving in the way of Allah can be both peaceful and physical."
Al-Mubarak said that, according to the Muslim prophet Mohammad, the best jihad is one in which a person strives against himself; however, when a jihad requires physical exertion against others, certain rules must be followed.
"When fighting an unjust enemy, no matter how unjust they are, it is forbidden by Islam that their retreating forces are mutilated, tortured or slaughtered," he said. "In the Quran, Allah says, 'And fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress the limits. Truly Allah loves not the transgressors.'"
Transgressing the limits, Al-Mubarak said, means to kill women, children, the elderly, the sick, monks, worshippers, hired laborers and other noncombatants. He said it also means to recklessly kill animals, burn crops and vegetation, pollute waters and destroy homes, monasteries, churches and synagogues. These things are not to be done.
Although some Muslims believe that suicide bombing is part of jihad and a virtuous act for which they will receive a reward, Al-Mubarak said this could not be further from the truth.
"The Prophet Saws said, 'those who go to extremes are destroyed,'" Al-Mubarak said. "Suicide bombing is an extremity. In the rules of warfare, we find no sanction for such an act.
"Once, when a man killed himself, the Prophet Saws said, 'He is a dweller of the fire.' When the people were surprised, he said, 'A person performs the deeds which to the people appears to be the deeds befitting the dweller of paradise, but he is in fact one of the dwellers of the fire.'"
While Islam is split into different sects, with some interpreting the Quran differently, Muslim scholars agree that terrorism defies the rules of a jihad.
For more information on jihad, contact a local chaplain.