Reply to Yehya

Submitted by Chris Isherwood (Japan), Mar 1, 2004 at 07:22

Reading some of the comments concerning what is Jihad, I was not surprised to see that the differences between "opinions" were often based on "emotions" and not on a scholarly, cool headed understanding. First and foremost, you need to question the question, put it in context, i.e, who is asking it, why etc.

I think Yehya made some ground with her comments on the relationship between "meaning" "understanding" and geopolitical differences. What does it mean to give "meaning" in the first place? There are certain political agendas involved, power relationships of often just axes to grind (this last point especially came through in many comments) I am not a specialist in this field so I cannot comment on what "IS" Jihad, so I can't comment. Giving it a specific "meaning" can only be understood in context.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".