About Jihad in Islam..........

Submitted by Mohamed (Maldives), Nov 20, 2002 at 03:48

The President of Maldives His Excellency Maumoon Abdul Qayoom, an islamic scholar graduated from Al Azhar University and a widely respected statemens through out the world, in a speech said.

"Jihad is the excersise of the right of self defense in responding to aggression committed against one's country. He said that the meaning of the word Jihad was to strive strenuously and further said that the term had a very clear and specific relation to war. He said that concept of Jihad ruled out all types of agression, including attacking territory and people of other states. He also explained that Islam had laid down clear and specific code for muslims for conducting thier relationship with non muslims ad said that these taught muslims to develop and maintain with non muslims harmonious relations based on peace, friendship and cooperation. In particular he said that while efforts should be made to explain the message of islam to non muslims, Islam did not advocate coercing anyone to embrace the faith."

---

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".