Islam - a dictionary

Remove all ads!

Ending up utterly confused after reading another newspaper article about the middle east I found I had to surf the web to gain insight. Who can remember all these names? Ugh

• ISLAM: Islamic Beliefs
  
  At the core of Islam is the Qur'an, believed to be the final revelation by a transcendent Allah [Arab.,=the God] to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam; since the Divine Word was revealed in Arabic, this language is used in Islamic religious practice worldwide. Muslims believe in final reward and punishment, and the unity of the umma, the „nation” of Islam. Muslims submit to Allah through arkan ad-din, the five basic requirements or „pillars”: shahadah, the affirmation that „there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God”; salah, the five daily ritual prayers (see liturgy, Islamic); zakat, the giving of alms, also known as a religious tax; Sawm, the dawn-to-sunset fast during the lunar month of Ramadan; and hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The importance of the hajj can hardly be overestimated: this great annual pilgrimage unites Islam and its believers from around the world.
  
  The ethos of Islam is in its attitude toward Allah: to His will Muslims submit; Him they praise and glorify; and in Him alone they hope. However, in popular or folk forms of Islam, Muslims ask intercession of the saints, prophets, and angels, while preserving the distinction between Creator and creature. Islam views the Message of Muhammad as the continuation and the fulfillment of a lineage of Prophecy that includes figures from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, notably Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. Islamic law reserves a communal entity status for the ahl al-kitab, People of the Book, i.e., those with revealed religions, including Jews and Christians. Islam also recognizes a number of extra-Biblical prophets, such as Hud, Salih, Shuayb, and others of more obscure origin. The chief angels are Gabriel and Michael; devils are the evil jinn.
  
  Other Islamic obligations include the duty to commend good and reprimand evil, injuctions against usury and gambling, and a prohibition of alcohol and pork. Meat is permitted (halal) if the animal was ritually slaughtered. Jihad, the exertion of efforts for the cause of God, is a duty satisfied at the communal and the individual level. At the individual level, it denotes the personal struggle to be righteous and follow the path ordained by God.
  
  In Islam, religion and social membership are inseparable: the ruler of the community (caliph) has both a religious and a political status. The unitary nature of Islam, as a system governing relations between a person and God, and a person and society, helped the spread of Islam so that, within a century of the Prophet's death, Islam extended from Spain to India.
  
  The evolution of Islamic mysticism into organizational structures in the form of Sufi orders was also, from the 13th century onwards, one of the driving forces in the spread of Islam (see Sufism; fakir). Sufi orders were instrumental in expanding the realm of Islam to trans-Saharan Africa, stabilizing its commercial and cultural links with the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and to SE Asia.
  .
• SUNNI
  
  [Arab. Sunna,=tradition], from ahl al-sunnah wa-l-jamaa [Arab.,=the people of the custom of the Prophet and community], the largest division of Islam. Sunni Islam is the heir to the early central Islamic state, in its ackowledgement of the legitimacy of the order of succession of the first four caliphs (see caliphate), in contrast to the Shiite rejection of the first three as usurpers. It can also be seen as the aggregate of the adherents to the four extant schools of religious law (fiqh), the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, and Hanbali schools. See sharia. With no centralized clerical institution, Sunni Islam should be understood as an umbrella identity, grouping close to 90% of the approximately one billion Muslims, stretching geographically from the Indonesian islands to the African steppes, through the Indian subcontinent, central Asia, and the Arab world, and ideologically from ecstatic Sufism to the puritanic literalism of the Wahhabis and Salafias, through scholasticism and secularism. The scholastic formulation, the most constant expression of Sunni Islam throughout its history and geographic span, proposes the relation of the human being with the Divine as essentially individual, with no intermediaries. In actual practice, however, religious scholars (ulama), together with mystic shaykhs, pious persons, and popular saints (awliya), are often recognized as enjoying a religious authority of varying degrees. The Sunni theoretical characterization of the Prophet Muhammad as a mere executor of Divine will has not precluded the intensive devotional rituals directed to his person that flourish in a diversity of forms across the Sunni world. The prime center of scholastic learning in Sunni Islam is the mosque-university of al-Azhar in Cairo.
  .
• WAHHABI
  
  reform movement in Islam, originating in Arabia. It was founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahab (c.1703-1791), who taught that all accretions to Islam after the 3d cent. of the Muslim era—i.e., after c.950—were spurious and must be expunged. This view, involving essentially a purification of the Sunni sect, regarded the veneration of saints, ostentation in worship, and luxurious living as the chief evils. Accordingly, Wahhabi mosques are simple and without minarets, and the adherents dress plainly and do not smoke tobacco or hashish. Driven from Medina for his preaching, the founder of the Wahhabi sect went into the NE Nejd and converted the Saud tribe. The Saudi sheik, convinced that it was his religious mission to wage holy war (jihad) against all other forms of Islam, began the conquest of his neighbors in c.1763. By 1811 the Wahhabis ruled all Arabia, except Yemen, from their capital at Riyadh. The Ottoman sultan, nominally suzerain over Arabia, had vainly sent out expeditions to crush them. Only when the sultan called on Muhammad Ali of Egypt for aid did he meet success; by 1818 the Wahhabis were driven into the desert. In the Nejd they collected their power again and from 1821 to 1833 gained control over the Persian Gulf coast of Arabia. The domain thereafter steadily weakened; Riyadh was lost in 1884, and in 1889 the Saud family fled for refuge into the neighboring state of Kuwait. The Wahhabi movement was to enjoy its third triumph when Ibn Saud advanced from his capture of Riyadh in 1902 to the reconstitution in 1932 of nearly all his ancestral domain under the name Saudi Arabia, where Wahhabism remains dominant. Wahhabism served as an inspiration to other Islamic reform movements from India and Sumatra to North Africa and the Sudan.
  .
• SHIITES
  
  [from Arab., shiat Ali,=the party of Ali], the second largest branch of Islam, Shiites currently account for 10-15% of all Muslims. Shiite Islam originated as a political movement supporting Ali (cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam) as the rightful leader of the Islamic state. The legitimacy of this claim, as initially envisioned by Ali's supporters, was based on Muhammad's alleged designation of Ali as his successor, Ali's righteousness, and tribal customs, given his close relation to the Prophet. Ali's right passed with his death in 661 to his son Hasan, who chose not to claim it, and after Hasan's death, to Husayn, Ali's younger son. The evolution into a religious formulation is believed to have been initiated with the martyrdom of Husayn in 680 at Karbala (today in Iraq), a traumatic event still observed with fervor in today's Shiite world on the 10th of the month of Muharram of the Muslim lunar year.
  The Shiite focus on the person of the Imam made the community susceptible to division on the issue of succession. The early Shiites, a recognized, if often persecuted, opposition to the central government, soon divided into several factions. The majority of the Shiites today are Twelve-Imam Shiites (notably in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, India, and Pakistan). Others are Zaydis (in Yemen), and the Ismailis (in India, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen). The central belief of Twelve-Imam Shiites is the occultation (or disappearance from view) of the 12th Imam. The 12th Imam is considered to be the only legitimate and just ruler, and therefore no political action taken in his absence can be fruitful. While this position has provided Shiite clerics with the means to survive an often hostile environment, the need for an alternative formulation capable of framing political militancy has fostered activist movements within the Shiite tradition, occasionally leading to dissidence: see Babism.
  
  The religious authority of the Shiite clerics is derived from their role as deputies of the absent 12th Imam; they are as such the recipients of the khums religious tax, a source of substantial economic autonomy. Shiite clerics are often refered to as mullahs and mujtahids. The most prominent clerical position is that of marja al-taqlid. The Shiite clergy does not, however, have a formal hierarchy. The honorific ayat Allah or ayatollah [Arab.,=sign of God] is a modern title that does not correspond to any established religious function.
  
  In Iran, the Safavid adoption of a Shiite state religion led to the expansion of clerical involvement in public life, under the tutelage of the political elite. The threat of European colonialism in the 19th century presented the opportunity for Shiite activist thought to gain impetus. The attempt of the Pahlevi monarchy in the 20th century to curtail the influence of the clerics further strengthened clerical political militancy. Benefitting from a ubiquitous clerical network, and enjoying a credibility unblemished by the corruption within the autocratic regime, Ruhollah Khomeini served as the culmination of the reintegration of activism into the Shiite mainstream. With the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Shiite activist formulation progressed toward stressing the nonsectarian pan-Islamic character of its ideology. Islam, it suggests, should be lived as a tool for the empowerment of the oppressed, not merely as a set of devotional practices; hence the Iranian support for the Palestinian, Afghan, and Lebanese causes.
  
  See M. Momen, An Introduction to Shii Islam (1985).
  .
• SUFISM
  
  an umbrella term for the ascetic and mystical movements within Islam. While Sufism is said to have incorporated elements of Christian monasticism, gnosticism, and Indian mysticism, its origins are traced to forms of devotion and groups of penitents (zuhhad) in the formative period of Islam. The early pious figures, later appropriated by Sufism, include Ali, Hasan al-Basri (d. 801), and Rabia al-Adawiyya, a woman from Basra (Iraq) who rejected worship motivated by the desire for heavenly reward or the fear of punishment and insisted on the love of God as the sole valid form of adoration. The word Sufi first appears in the 8th century, probably in connection with the coarse wool that many ascetics wore.
  Two central Sufi concepts are tawakkul, the total reliance on God, and dhikr, the perpetual rememberence of God. Al-Muhasibi (d. 857) and his disciple Junayd (d. 910) are representative early figures. The introduction of gnostic elements (marifa) into Sufism is often attributed to Dhu-n-Nun al-Misri (d. 859). Sufism nonetheless faced growing opposition from orthodox clerics. The scholastic and ecstatic paths further diverged with the concept of fana, the dissolution into the divine, advocated by al-Bistami (d. 874), and used by Hallaj in the declaration of his unity with God, which eventually led to his execution in 922. Islamic orthodoxy and Sufism were not unreconcilable, as attested by the attempt by al-Ghazali (d. 1111) to infuse conformist Muslim religious life with mysticism.
  
  The evolution of Sufism in the post-Ghazali period was influenced by Ibn al-Arabi and Ibn al-Farid. Their theoretical contributions led to the development within Sufism of a complex system of initiation and progression towards the Divine and set the stage for the emergence of organized Sufi orders. This phase of literary Sufism was also characterized by the prominence of Persian works, notably those of Shihab ad-Din Suhrawardi (d. 1191), Farid ad-Din Attar, and Jalal ad-Din Rumi, and the subsequent development of Persian, Turkish, and Urdu mystic poetry. Important Sufi figures elsewhere in the Islamic world include Muin ad-Din Chishti in India and Baha ad-Din Naqshband (d. 1390) in central Asia.
  
  Sufi orders, which assimilated aspects of native religious traditions more readily than more dogmatic versions of Islam, played a major role in the expansion of Islam into sub-Saharan Africa and central, S, and SE Asia. The oldest extant order with attested historicity is probably the Qadiriyya, founded by Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166) in Baghdad. Other important orders include the Ahmadiyya (notably in Egypt), Naqshbandiyya (Central Asia), Nimatullahiyya (Iran), Rifaiyya (Egypt, SW Asia), Shadhiliyya (N Africa, Arabia), Suhrawardiyya and Chishtiyya (S and central Asia), and Tijaniyya (N and W Africa).
  
  The work of Idries Shah has been instrumental in introducing Sufism to the West; see his The Sufis (1964) and The Way of the Sufi (1968). Although Sufism has made significent contributions to the spread of Islam and the development of various aspects of Islamic civilization (e.g., literature and calligraphy), many conservative Muslims disagree with many popular Sufi practices, particularly saint worship, the visiting of tombs, and the incorporation of non-Islamic customs. Consequently, in recent centuries Sufism has been a target for Islamic reformist and modernist movements.
  
  See A. J. Arberry, Sufism (1970); Leonard Lewin, ed., The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West (1972); Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975) and As Through a Veil (1982).
  .
• ISMAILIS
  
  Muslim Shiite sect that holds Ismail, the son of Jafar as-Sadiq, as its imam. On the death of the sixth imam of the Shiites, Jafar as-Sadiq (d. 765), the majority of Shiites accepted Musa al-Kazim, the younger son of Jafar, as seventh imam. Those who remained faithful to Ismail, the eldest son, soon evolved the belief that Ismail was endowed with an infallible gift for interpreting the inner meaning of the revelation. Ismailism developed an understanding of Islam and promoted it through an active missionary system. Although the early history remains obscure, Ismailism incorporated elements of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and Hindu thought to explain its concept of the imam. Over time it came to stress the importance of the estoeric aspects of the faith over the exoteric. The first success of the Ismaili movement was the establishment of the Qarmat state (Carmathians) in E Arabia. Ismaili missionaries and its political organization also mobilized a network of N African tribes to support the Fatimid claim to the caliphate in Egypt and several regions of the Mediterranean. An offshoot, the Assassins established a state in NE Iran, from where they performed their eponymous task with frequency and fervor until the 13th cent. In 1094 the Ismailis split into Nizaris and Mustalis. Today, though a minority community that is not politically active, the Ismailis are spread in small pockets in parts of the Middle East, central and S Asia, and increasingly North America and Europe. The family of the Aga Khan traces its descent from the imam Ismail. See S. M. Stern, Studies in Early Ismailism (1983); F. Daftary, The Ismailis (1990).
  .
• MULLAH
  
  Among the Islamic religious honorifics are shaykh, a generic term refering to a religious scholar or a mystic master; ... ; and mullah, a synonym of shaykh used in the Persian-speaking world.
  .
• IMAM
  
  [Arab.,=leader], in Islam, a recognized leader or a religious teacher. Among the Sunni the term refers to the leader in the Friday prayer at the mosque; any pious Muslim may function as imam. The term has also been used as a synonym for caliph (see caliphate), the vicegerent of God. The Shiites, with their numerous denominations throughout history, have developed specific meanings for the term. Zaydi Shiites recognize as Imam any pious descendant of Ali and Fatima who earns his recognition as a leader through struggle. Twelve-Imam Shiite dogma restricts the Imams to Ali, his sons Hasan and Husayn, and nine direct linear descendants of Husayn. Twelve-Imam Shiite doctrine presents the Imams as infallible intermediaries between the human and the divine. The continuous presence of the Imams being a prerequisite for human salvation, al-Mahdi, the last Imam, is considered in occultation (hidden from humanity) since 874 only to return near the end of creation as a messiah-like figure. For Ismaili Shiites, the succession of the Imams breaks off from the Twelve-Imams line with Ismail, the son of Jafar al-Sadiq (see Ismailis). At present the Nizari subgroup of the Ismailis is the only group whose members claim a living and visible Imam in the person of Shah Karim al-Husayn, Aga Khan IV. The use of the title imam; by the Iranian revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini and by the Lebanese Shiite leader Musa al-Sadr signaled a new development in Twelve-Imam Shiite doctrine, since neither could not claim to be the Hidden Imam returned, reflecting the desire to transcend the passive waiting for the reappearance of the Mahdi and promote the reincorporation of political activism into Shiite religious life.
  .
• JIHAD
  
  This word has been in frequent use in the Western press over the past several years, explained directly or subtlely, to mean holy war. As a matter of fact the term "holy war" was coined in Europe during the Crusades, meaning the war against Muslims. It does not have a counterpart in Islamic glossary, and Jihad is certainly not its translation.
  
  The word Jihad means striving. In its primary sense it is an inner thing, within self, to rid it from debased actions or inclinations, and exercise constancy and perseverance in achieving a higher moral standard. Since Islam is not confined to the boundaries of the individual but extends to the welfare of society and humanity in general, an individual cannot keep improving himself/herself in isolation from what happens in their community or in the world at large, hence the Quranic injunction to the Islamic nation to take as a duty "to enjoin good and forbid evil." (3:104) It is a duty which is not exclusive to Muslims but applies to the human race who are, according to the Quran, God's vicegerent on earth. Muslims, however, cannot shirk it even if others do. The means to fulfil it are varied, and in our modern world encompass all legal, diplomatic, arbitrative, economic, and political instruments. But Islam does not exclude the use of force to curb evil, if there is no other workable alternative. A forerunner of the collective security principle and collective intervention to stop aggression, at least in theory, as manifested in the United Nations Charter, is the Quranic reference "..make peace between them (the two fighting groups), but if one of the two persists in aggression against the other, fight the aggressors until they revert to God's commandment." (49:9)
  
  Military action is therefore a subgroup of the Jihad and not its totality. That was what prophet Mohammad emphasized to his companions when returning from a military campaign, he told them: "This day we have returned from the minor jihad (war) to the major jihad (self-control and betterment)."
  
  Jihad is not a declaration of war against other religions and certainly not against Christians and Jews as some media and political circles want it to be perceived. Islam does not fight other religions. Christians and Jews are considered as fellow inheritors of The Abrahamic traditions by Muslims, worshipping the same God and following the tradition of Abraham.
  
  The rigorous criteria for a "just war" in Islam have already been alluded to, as well as the moral and ethical constraints that should be abided by. Modern warfare does not lend itself to those moral standards; and therefore, war should be replaced by some other alternative for conflict resolution. An enlightened and resolute world public opinion can overcome and subdue war oriented mentalities.
  
  The key is a change of heart. Just as there is a constructive role for forgiveness in interpersonal relations, so might this be possible in international relations provided justice, and not force, is the final arbiter.
  
  We have to acknowledge again, for the sake of honesty, that historically all traditions, Muslim, Christian, Jew as well as others, had their lapses in honestly following the valued ideals of their religions or philosophies. We all made mistakes, and we still do. Muslims are no exception, and time and again religion was exploited by ambitious tyrants or violated by ignorant mobs. This is no reflection on religion, but it shows how desperately humanity is in need of better education, more enduring concern for human dignity, rights and freedom, and vigilant pursuit of justice, even at the price of curbing political and economic greed.
  
  taken from here .

I found these articles here: http://www.slider.com/enc/index.htm

 

I heard that the term 'Jihad' wasn't used for a long time until the U.S. used it to egg on the Afghans to resist the Soviets. I can't confirm it though. It would be quite ironic if it were true.

 

Yeah, from here we can understand that Usama and Co. aren't really Muslim [well they are, but there isn't such a belief as "destroy everything in sight"], they are radical Muslims as they are told in here (Turkey). And they exaggerate everything, they think that they are making their actions according to Quran but they are not, also i can bet on my all that some of Usama's company haven't even read the Quran.
Islam must be understood at all, else it can be very dangerous if you understand it like Usama.
See,i'm a Müslim and i don't carry dynamites, ram planes to skyscrapers or have an AK-47.
Anyway this matter is really so much sophisticated that it's even discussed in Muslim countries, so arguing about Islam and people's beliefs in Islam would need much researching or one better has a good point about arguing about Islam.

 

I know that you were generalizing about the Crusades and the term "holy war." But it wasn't really about Muslims as much as it was about the combining of two concepts -- chivalry(a code of warfare) and Christian ethics, which were supposed to be non-violent.

For years the church had been trying to put an end to the constant fighting all over France and Germany; neither was really a nation then, but a collection of feudal states, ruled by petty barons -- who were largely ignoring the authority of the church.

The reform papacy sought to exert its power by bringing the fighting men of Europe under the authority of the church with the concept of the "holy warrior." In this way they were able to direct the fighting energies of the knights against their enemies. The knights thought this was a good idea because they got to do what they liked best, fighting, while at the same time being absolved of their sins.

To get back to your point about the Muslims and the Crusades, they were as much directed against other Christians as they were against Muslims. There were numerous "crusades" against Christian "heretics" all over Europe, especially in the south of France, which was ravaged by the Crusaders. Also, jews were not spared either (but then they never are).

In the end, ironically, the Crusaders attacked and conquered Constantinople, the very Christian city that had originally asked for help against the Muslims in the first place and sparked the Crusades. Pope Urban II used letters from Constantinople as evidence of Muslim atrocities against Christians in the Holy Land while he was preaching the First Crusade all over France.

It may sound like I am nitpicking about the term "holy war," but I wanted to make the point that the Crusades were less about real religion -- Christian vs Muslim -- than they were about politics and greed. I should point out that there are other theroies about the causes and nature of the Crusades. This was my area in college and this one made the most sense to me as well as many others with whom I studied.

My question then is, how useful is the idea of Jihad to the political leaders of the Middle East? and could they be using the notion of a holy war for the benefit of their own political ends? And I don't just mean political leaders, but the clergy as well. I really am not that well versed in the politics of the Middle East, so I am throwing the question out there for anyone who might have some ideas, since you touched on it, but in a very general way.

[ April 03, 2003, 09:08: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

It was effective in the history than it's now. For example when an Ottoman Sultan called for Jihad everyone answered. But this ended in late WW1 when the arabs backtabbed Turks and didn't answer the call for Jihad. And after Turkey is liberated and democracy was founded, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk kicked monarchists and thus religious guys, so the caliphs rights of holy war was taken and was given to no one.
So no one has the right to declare a Jihad now.

 

Chandros the red, I fully agree with your historical resume of the crusades. I just want to stress some points:

The “franc” crusaders were brutal, cruel, bloodthirsty and greedy. The worst scum of their time. Which explains why “crusade” is an offensive word in the muslim world.

The “backstabbing” and plundering of Constantinople (named after the first Christian roman emperor, Constantin the great ) aided the political interests of the Italian cities and left Constantinople incapable of defending itself against the Turks, who renamed it into Istanbul. Orthodox Christians just love that part.

Ironically, European minstrels agreed after the crusade that the virtues and ideals of chivalry never been better presented as by the Muslim leader Saladin. Saladin is the prototype of the Paladin.
Saladin therefore is at the same time a hero of the Arabs and (but nearly forgotten) hero of the Europeans. And was born inside of the borders of today’s Iraq, Saddam Husseins propaganda tries to imply a “link” between Saladin and Saddam.

Muslim scientific research and knowledge was very important for the starting of European scientific research (a daily bath (hygiene), al- chemics , Arabic-numbers : 1,2,3,4,5…)

Most muslim scholars say that the word “jihad” and its prerequisites are in western media (willfully ?) miss presented. It may also be translated as:” If “evil” people attack a country, it is a just war to defend this country and it is a Moslems duty to do so.”
Muslim Ideas concerning Jihad are one of the roots of the international-law-rule that only a defensive war is a just war, aggressive wars are forbidden
This international-law-rule shall be obeyed, that's at least what they said as they hanged German and Japanese war-criminals and defended Kuweit against Iraq).

Medias in my country usally use "jihad" in this way, maybe because islam is the 3rd biggest religion in my country, after protestants and catholics.

Jihad can only be a “resistance”, it can’t be used to justify an aggressive war. Virtually all Moslem clergy leaders therefore said, that Bin Laden use of the word “Jihad” was just plain wrong and condemned his deeds.

[ April 03, 2003, 15:01: Message edited by: Yago ]

 

To be fair, there were I would think about 8 Crusades in all (plus some smaller ones), so it would be grossly unfair to state that the Crusaders as a whole went and attacked Constantinople. The attack on Constantinople was made at the Fourth Crusade, and instigated by the Venetians. Pope Innocent III excommunicated the participants of that Crusade when, before sacking Constantinople, they had attacked and captured Zara, which was a rival then of Venice.

I am not sure, but since the jihad is religious in nature, then one would presume it has religious implications. Middle Eastern politics has been tied up with religion, however, more than the West is now, that the implications go well beyond that of religion and into politics.

 

I tell you the religious guys who believe in Jihad in 21th century (those who are islamists that they are blinded)wouldn't do that because no one can declare a Jihad.

 

Khelben, can you then explain this to me; this was posted by a Muslim on another board (which is more or less populated by Muslims):

http://www.englishsabla.com/forum/showthread.php?s=abbb13004c36d55323c2f7817e8957b9&threadid=11973

Essentially, it is a call for jihad, and the overthrow of (what he sees) their weak and ineffectual leaders.

 

IIRC a jihad can only be declared by a great imam. As there is no great imam, no one can legally declare a holy war.

The reason why there is no great imam is that this figure would have too much power to be tolerated by the governments in the middle east. They would see a great imam as a threat as islam has always seen political rule and religion as one thing. The western perception of seperation of religion and government is alien to islam. So nowadays, when people call out for jihad, that's political bull.
But despite it beeing just political bull it can have a significant impact. As people may deeply believe to do a holy war it is irrelevant for them if this war wasn't announced in the legally correct procedure. They will fight as grim as if it would be a *real* one.

 

Connotation.

Denotation.

Those two mark the difference between peace and war.

 

Milliardo Peacecraft : This guy have nuts, and i haven't read Quran so i don't know if those are true (probably not, this is a very big chance).
He may cry as loud as he wishes but as long as there is no great imam or caliph which was raised by us when we accepted democracy and condemned by the Arabs.But that was their fault, because we thought that jihad only leaved quetion marks, chaos and traitors in its wake.
Anyway, he may cry as loud as he wishes but nobody would give him a f**k.(i've read that text two or three times but till couldn't figure anything for most of the words are arabic)
Ragusa:That's what i'm telling, great imams are (were) just puppets who were used by great political powers for their causes and gains. So even IF a great imam existed he would be Saddam or Usama's puppet.
And the great imam was a corrupted gay, so that he made Ottoman Empire enter the WW1 for political gains.
A great imam's job should be keeping peace through the Islam world and keeping peace with other religions which nobody can do when he reaches the great imam title, because he would be too confused and corrupted.
That's why there are no great imams exist.It was simply too wrong for us to resist.(along with the reasons you've told)

 

Yago -- Yes, some of the Francs were exactly what you describe. Especially the Normans, who never passed up the chance to attack a region where they saw weakness and the opportunity for adding to their lands and wealth, whether it was at the expense, murder or severe oppression of the local population, either Muslim or otherwise. They did this in parts of Europe and the Middle East, using the same pattern of aggression.

And I agree that Saladin was certainly all the things that you suggest. He has been referred to as the model "Christain warrior" by more than a few historians.

Milliardo Peacecraft -- I was only trying to convey a thumbnail version of events without going into a lot of detail. Some believe that there were as many crusades as you mention. In fact there are historians who think that the conquest of the new world was a continuation of the crusading movement that started with Urban and the other reform popes. Others believe there were really only 3 crusades, which I agree with, and that real crusading ends with King Richard I. A few think they never existed at all, at least as we view them. Christopher Tyerman wrote a fascinating short history - The Invention of the Crusades - that argues that our notion of crusading was invented long after the fact.

As for the Venetians and the Fourth Crusade: They were only supposed to provide logistical support for the Crusaders. But once the Crusaders came up short with the money to pay them, they began to smell opportunity and did in fact, as you correctly point out, instigate the attack on the Byzantine Empire.

Nevertheless, members of the Crusading army had their greedy eyes on Constantinople long before the Fourth Crusade, mainly Bohemond and the other Normans.

It is thought by some that one of the main goals of the reform papacy was to unite both churches, East and West, under one supreme Christian leader -- the pope. That the attack on Constantanople contributed greatly to this end may have been just a coincidental side benefit.

[ April 03, 2003, 20:32: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

In any case going in Constantanople is not an easy job let alone raiding it.
I live in Istanbul(Constantanople ) and I can honestly tell you that conquering Istanbul is nearly impossible even with overwhelming odds(1 to 4 or 5)There are walls all over the city (inner and outer) and there are many keeps and castles.
Ottomans built one keep across Constantanople just for the siege.
And the inner city,(which was Hagiasophia) is near the coast and it is too surrounded with walls.
The Ottomans conquered the city with an army of 40000(or more i guess, i may be remembering false) and with one of the greatest Sultan in its history Mehmet, the Conqueror.And they had the highest technology(artillery, i don't know the exact words, those ball-launchers in the pirate ships).And with ships both from the see and earth (you heard it right,earth just for deception).
And i think the thing the crusaders did was no more than a suicide.

 

The Crusaders were inside of Istanbul (to the dismay of some in Istanbul, who "knew" what would happen), because they were meant to be "allies". So they attacked Istanbul from the inside, therefore "backstabbing".

 

The attack on Istanbul illustartes that the Crusades had little to do with the liberation of Christians in the Holy Land, its supposed purpose. That by the time of the Fourth Crusade, it had disintegrated into a war between Christians, further demostrates the true nature and motives behind the Crusading movement, which the papacy had unleashed on Europe and innocent Muslims living in the Holy Land.

But if I am understanding correctly, the idea of jihad is really only being used in the Middle East among small groups of militants who have an ideological motive for its use, and is not being used as such by mainstream Islamic or political leaders. Or does it vary from country to country? I have heard the term jihad used repeatedly in news stories over the last few years whenever there is Islamic oppostion to US policy.

For instance, in Iran and Syria, where there is a lot of anti-American feelings, does anyone know if the politcal and religious leaders use jihad as an actual term? What is becoming clear to me, from the above posts, is that American reporters and wire services are using the word jihad as a generic term for any Islamc body that has a strong opposition to US invovlment in Islamic countries (???). Such use, or misuse, of the term certainly has an emotional impact on American viewers.

 

Yeah, Jihad became a word of "let's kill americans and englishs".

 

Yeah well. Khelben said the true thing.
Let's kill Americans = Jihad

 

We have some real experts on the Crusades here -- I'm not going to even try to match wits with you guys on this one - I researched some of the combat techniques used by Muslims during the Crusades (particularly by the men lead by Saladin) but the rest of my history is about 12 years old (that's when I took my Middle Ages history course).

What I do want to point out is that words change. Take a simple word like "fag". Bundle of sticks -> cigarette -> Homosexual. There is a link there, sort of, but it is irrelevant to my thesis here. Jihad may have started as a defensive term, a battle that can only be instigated at the call of a great Imam or Caliph. The word has changed, though. It still means a defensive war to its practitioners, they simply believe in the best defense being a good offense. They also believe that it can now be called by anyone who can demonstrate or convince a group of Muslims that Islam is under attack.

Trouble is, I don't see "Islam" under attack. If it were, the US would be gunning for: Saudia Arabia, the United Arab Emirate, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Libya, Eqypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, and a good chunk of India, not to mention a whackload of other countries with Muslim ties.

Anyhow, as a word, this one is going to be giving dictionary writers headaches for the forseeable future.

 

I fully agree. And I want to stress one thing. Most of the people in the middle east have a real bad education. So, to be mislead by peole who claim to understand "islam" and be instrumentalist for their own political goals is pretty common. (But makes "islam" itself not "evil").


Even worse is the situation in Afghanistan (central asia)is mainly populated by illitaretes. Now, the name "taliban" in itself is nothing but bad a joke. It means something like "student of the holy scripture", whereas nearly all of the taliban can neither write nor read. Most of them where recruited in orphantages.

It's like the bible. You need a whole lotta patience and good guidance to understand that thing. (Like Tal, the Alpha and Omega, does).

uh oh. You don't want to mess with India and Pakistan. They've got Atom-Bombs, plenty of Weapons of Mass-Destruction and are more than a billion people.

[ April 07, 2003, 11:08: Message edited by: Yago ]