Word jihad abused by some angry Muslims

LAHORE - John Kiser, an American intellectual, says that word ‘jihad’ has been much abused by a tiny, but spectacularly successful minority of angry Muslims, whose success has been to pervert a good and holy word into a bad word, one that is associated in the non-Muslim world with Muslims killing people in God’s name.
John, who is working for inter-faith harmony across the world, is author of two books, “The Monks of Tibhirine” and, “Commandar of the faithful: the life and times of Emir Abd el-Kader”.
He is in City for few days in connection with launch of his second book on Emir Abd el-Kader, an Algerian who fought against French colonialism in nineteenth century.
In an interview with The Nation on Friday, John said that Jihad and violence were now widely viewed in the public mind as synonymous with Islam. Such thinking, he believed, fuels Western Islamophobia which, in turn, encourages various forms of aggression-verbal and otherwise-that lends credence to the jihadist argument that the West hates Islam and wants to destroy it. And that is their most potent recruiting tool, he added.
“This sense of threat to Muslims’ religious identity can best be understood among secular people if we think of Islam representing what flag and home represent to us,” he observed.
According to John Kiser, “Defending and dying for one’s flag is considered patriotism, and for many Muslims, Islam is flag and home. For those Muslims who have not yet been secularized-faith is a primary source of identity, much as it is for a Trappist monk or Mennonite. But when they fight, especially in a violent manner, Westerners call it fanaticism”.
In his view, the jihadist are making up their own law and like all politically motivated leaders, want to wrap their cause in righteousness, and they do it by cherry picking scripture and inventing or dismissing Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet). According to his understanding of Islam, God doesn’t outlaw fighting, but does give guidance on how to fight and why to fight.