To distinguish different forms of jihad is absurd. Islam is Jihad whether it is by using violence or by using peaceful methods. The word Muslim means a person who holds firm to the Belief and the Belief is not only that Islam is the WORD of God and everyone has to submit to its dictates but a Believer has to be firm in his Belief and demonstrate to himself and the Muslim brotherhood that he is indeed a Believer. The burden of guilt that the system imposes on the Believers is excruciatingly painful to bear. Every Muslim should strive to establish the reign of Allah in this world. If he is in a Muslim majority country, he should strive to establish that Sharia becomes the law of the land. If he is in a country in which Muslims are in a minority, it is obligatory for him to use every opportunity to propagate and persuade others to convert! In doing so, he can suspend even some Islamic codes.
True, not all Muslims could adhere to these tenets but those who don’t carry the burden of guilt and become defensive or evasive when the radical interpreters of Islam confront them. I think even the most radical of these Believers are guilt ridden because they cannot be sure that they have lived according to the WORD of God. Of course, they want to change the world to bring it in conformity with Islam but the changes that have occurred have been so widespread and so rapid that they would always be in doubt as to whether they are following the Word of God. For instance, should the Television be banned is not a simple question. Those who want all Tvs to be destroyed in every nook and corner of the world because it is in some ways ‘idol worship’ clash with those who use Tv to propagate Islam.
In such a tortured belief system there is bound to be constant turmoil which is the history of Islam. It can be stilled only when you bring Muhammad himself back on this Earth and this is an impossibility and even Blasphemy. At least in Christianity, there is a second coming but not in Islam!
Let us admit that notwithstanding what the wise, the good and brilliant Muslims say to contradict me, Islam is ANTI MODERN and the only way that Modernity could coexist with Islam is by saving our Muslim brothers from their own Belief. But that would never happen; more likely, all of us will be Talibanised bit by bit, and the whole world woudl be converted into the cultural aridity of Saudi Arabia!
So we can keep making distinctions of jehad and jehadists but the war has already been lost when you make that distinction.
