I was listening yesterday afternoon on the way to pick up my girlfriend for a date, and they had a featured speaker who was Muslim talking about the meaning of Jihad. She contended that Jihad had been used out of context, since it means "spiritual struggle" to them, and a better word to use when dealing with "disenfranchised" Muslim youths( remember that word?) would be Hariba, meaning "Murderer"............she felt that if you de-glorified their acts, which she states is against all that Islam teaches, and de-legitimize it from Martyrdom to Murder, then you could influence them to stop..............to which I state BS! Anyone care to comment? I know this has been beaten down, but I thought her simplistic notions to be naive

shouldn't the "imams" be doing this?

Sounds more like "hug a muslim to make peace " to me.

"'Jihad' is a personal, spiritual struggle, often misinterpreted by non-Muslims as meaning violence on the behalf of Islam."  

This is a lie you hear Muslims tell the Western public quite a bit, and it's lapped up by the people you'd expect would believe it (multiculturalists, peaceniks, Leftists, college professor types).

Jihad is exactly what you think it is and it has always meant holy war against infidels on behalf of Islam and Allah. It's meaning didn't suddenly change after 9/11/01 when average people started learning and paying attention to Islam more. You can be sure Muslim clerics do not preach that jihad is a personal spiritual struggle in Muslims' hearts. The ROP realizes that the truth about their beliefs is a little unpalatable to Westerners, so they feel a need for smokescreens and PR.  Another way they do this is when they say that the Koran is untranslatable, that it's true meaning can only be understood in Arabic.  That's more nonsense, and again, it's meant to deflect non-Muslims from understanding what Islam is really all about.

The one good thing to come from Battletech's Mechwarrior spin-off was when the explanation for why the galaxy was in such shitty condition was because a bunch of religious maniacs declared a jihad and went around using banned weapons of mass destruction indiscriminantly. This was shortly after 9-11, and they've stuck to it.

What she said was technically correct.  "Jihad" literally means struggle, but only from the strict linguistic point of view.

In common usage, "Jihad" has taken more of a meaning of "Intifadah," or uprising.  It sounds that she was struggling to tell people that Muslims aren't all evil terrorists.

I wish her luck.

The Koran is "untranslatable" because its so full of contradictions and bs.............I dont think she or any other Muslim could sell that to anyone save the completely naive or stupid

Quoted: The Koran is "untranslatable" because its so full of contradictions and bs.............I dont think she or any other Muslim could sell that to anyone save the completely naive or stupid

Where did anyone mention the Koran?  I was using a dictionary.

And as far as "untranslatable," have you actually read it or tried to translate it?

Anyway, most muslims are not extremist terrorists.