Terrorism in the name of Jihad

Terrorism has become a global problem. Countries whether poor or rich, developed or underdeveloped have been severely affected by the menace of the terrorist actions. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, nineteen Young Arabs, fifteen of them from Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of the Egyptian Mohammed Atta, hijacked four U.S. domestic airliners, two of them slammed into the twin towers (the United States of America's most prominent buildings) the World Trade Centre in New York City. Another plane plowed into the Pentagon and fourth airplane crashed in field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In all of them, 5219 civilian individuals were died some of them victimized. That, shocking news was spread all over the world within a minute. Within hours, the U.S. government identified the hijackers as members of al-Qaeda under Osama Bin Laden, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, living in Afghanistan. This attack led war against terrorism.

In the same year another terrorists suicide attacks occurred at the Parliament house of India on Thursday, December 13, 2001 using a car having a blue light on top and siren as if they were VIPs' with commandos targeting the dignitaries. Terrorists were able to enter in the parliament security zone with the help of forge entry on their windshield. This incident badly affected the Indo-Pak relation.

Similarly, Nepal has been facing terrorist actions in various forms within and outside the country. Among many, one of the bitter example that Nepal witnessed transnational terrorism, is the hijacking of IC 814 Indian Airlines- Airbus 300 flying from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu to Delhi carrying 178 passengers (154 Indians, eight Nepalese and many foreign tourists as well) on December 24, 1999 by Ibrahim Athar, Latif and others (members of one of the terrorist organizations). This became one of the major security issues between Nepal and India. In the same way, Meerza Dil Sadbeg, a sitting MP (House of Representatives) was also killed in Kathmandu, by the organized criminal groups. Different people use terrorism to describe different things: As a label for acts of violence, it reflects negatively on those who are labeled as terrorist. If one side in a dispute can characterize the enemy in a negative way, and so win public opinion over to their point of view, they will not hesitate to do so”. Hence the saying: “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Terrorism has led to an inhuman atmosphere all round the globe. The most popular kind of terrorism that has emerged is Islamic terrorism. With different terrorist associations coming up, media has propagated new words like ’militant Islam’ (which has been in vogue in the World Press recently) and ’Islamic terrorism’.

I have heard in many news that in name of JIHAD the terrorist associations have been doing many disasters. I also wanted to know what the word Jihad means exactly. For this first of all I talked with many religious leaders, my family members. And finally I read the Holy Book "Quran" for my mother says that it has all the basic things. And I got my answer that no religion supports born terrorism.

The word Jihad stems from the Arabic root word J-H-D, which means "strive." Other words derived from this root include "effort," "labor," and "fatigue." If we talk about Jihad in the context of the holy Quran, Jihad means striving utmost to achieve an objective in a noble manner. The primary objective being to establish a social order based on the Quranic fundamental principles.Jihad is the name of an organized effort and its rules are defined in Islam e.g. nobody is allowed to fight with other person, kill other's woman, children and the old in name of JIhad, likewise it is forbidden to burn crops or houses. All terrorists do such activities and yet they are called Jihadis.

The very word ’Islam’ means peace and mischief is prohibited in Islam. Thus, it is said: "And create not disorder in the earth after it has been set in order…. Do you think mischief and belief in God can go together?
The Quran says: "O you, who believe, stand firmly for God as witnesses to fair dealing and let not the hatred of others make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice"

Fighting is allowed in Islam. But do you know with whom this fighting is meant? It is allowed against the forces of evil which interferes in the establishment of a social order based on truth. The religion never allows transgressing limits. Taking hostages and maltreating envoys and private citizens in any shape and form is totally foreign to the teachings and doctrines of Islam. In other words the philosophy of Islam totally rejects terrorism.

Hazrat Aqdas says: "The people who call themselves Muslims, but are convinced that Islam should be spread by swords, are not aware of the inherent excellence of Islam and their actions are like the actions of beasts". (Taryaq-e-Quloob, Roohani Khazain, vol. 15, p. 167).
Whatever the terrorists have been doing all around the world in name of Jihad can not be neglected by the Muslims themselves. This is a shameful thing for all those terrorists who are fulfilling their misconceptions in name of Jihad.