Jihad

• Jihad: the struggle against evil.
• Greater Jihad: the personal inward struggle of all Muslims to live in line with the teachings of their faith.
• Lesser Jihad: the outward struggle to defend one’s faith, family and country from threat.
• Holy war: fighting for a religious cause or God, probably controlled by a religious leader.
• Greater Jihad means that Muslims must observe the five pillars of Islam, which bring them closer to God.
• Lesser Jihad was more important in the early days of the faith, when they were being persecuted and they needed to protect their freedom to practise their faith.
• Muslims believe that behaving violently during war is justified, but does not mean that terrorism that targets innocent civilians is justified through lesser Jihad.
• The criteria for a Holy war is:

  1. Can only be declared by a fair religious leader
  2. Cannot be used to make people convert to Islam
  3. Must be in response to a threat of the faith
  4. Must not be used to gain territory or wealth
  5. Must be the last resort after all peaceful methods
• Jihad often has misconceptions with terrorism because of Lesser Jihad and people in the media misuse it.