Jihad

Submitted by Bernard Freedman (United States), Nov 5, 2002 at 19:39

Mr. Pipes:

Perhaps the scholarly professors you interviewed may wish to check the first definition of "Jihad" in the most authoritative dictionaries thus:

A holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty
Source: Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary

A Muslim holy war or spiritual struggle against infidels
Source The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition

A holy war which is fought by Muslims against people who are a threat to the Islamic religion or oppose its teachings
Source: Cambridge Dictionaries Online

These sources are all available online. (I did not quote the second more general usage of the word.)

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