September 1997 What Does Jihad Mean?
Douglas E. Streusand
This article was published by Middle East Quarterly in September 1997
Jihad, routinely translated as holy war, often makes headlines. For example, Yasir Arafat’s May 1994 call in Johannesburg for a “jihad to liberate Jerusalem”[1] was a turning point in the peace process; Israelis heard him speak about using violence to gain political ends, and questioned his peaceable intentions. Both Arafat himself [2] and his aides[3] then clarified that he was speaking about a “peaceful jihad” for Jerusalem.
This incident points to the problem with the word jihad: what exactly does it mean? Two examples from leading American Muslim organizations, both fundamentalist, show the extent of disagreement this issue inspires. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based group, flatly states that jihad “does not mean `holy war.’” Rather, it refers to “a central and broad Islamic concept that includes the struggle to improve the quality of life in society, struggle in the battlefield for self-defense
. . . or fighting against tyranny or oppression.” CAIR even asserts that Islam knows no such concept as “holy war.”[4] In abrupt contrast, the Muslim Students Association recently distributed an item with a Kashmir dateline, “Diary of a Mujahid.” The editor of this document understands jihad very much to mean armed conflict:
While we dream of jihad and some deny it, while others explain it away, and yet others frown on it to hide their
own weakness and reluctance towards it, here is a snapshot from the diary of a mujahid who had fulfilled his
dream to be on the battlefield.[5]
Does jihad mean a form of moral self-improvement or war in accord with Islamic precepts? There is no simple answer to this question, for Muslims for at least a millennium have disagreed about the meaning of jihad. But there is an answer.
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