Covering Terrorism Suspects

Abstract

There is a long tradition of armed struggle in Islam that dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. At its advent, Muslims fought numerous battles with the polytheists of Arabia for the preservation of Islam and for the establishment of the Islamic social order across the Peninsula. Like Islam’s spiritual struggle in respect to prayer and charity and other physical struggles to lead a morally upright and righteous life, armed struggle was another form of jihad practiced by the early Muslims. Over time, the definition of jihad became narrowed and synonymous with fighting or holy war. By the 9th century self-defense against armed aggressors ceased to be a necessary criterion for a call to jihad and the concept came to be used for offensive wars against non-Muslims for political purposes of empire-building. By the 14th century, the concept was invoked to legitimize armed struggle against Muslim rulers deemed not sufficiently Islamic. During the era of European colonial rule, various Muslim groups fought for independence under the banner of jihad (Rane, 2009). Today, jihad is linked to a new phenomenon, terrorism.