Islam Rediscovered
7. Discovery of Islam
~ 100 ~
parts of the world, wherever Muslims are engaged
in fighting for their own communal purposes they
inevitably call their activities Islamic
jihad
. The
harm done by such violent
jihad
has multiplied
thousand-fold due to the modern media’s selective
coverage of news. Since hot news is more profitable
than soft news, examples of Muslim
jihad
are seized
upon by the media as grist to the mill. This has
distorted the image of Islam to such an extent that,
today, Islam and violence have become
synonymous.
A state of affairs has developed in which Muslims
have come to believe that the cause of Islam can be
served only through
jihad
activism, that is, armed
struggle. With this mindset, they are unable to
understand the significance of peaceful struggle.
Anyone who talks in terms of peace and tolerance
finds his integrity in question. Any attempt at
making them understand the importance of
peaceful struggle is seen as a conspiracy to keep
them from performing
jihad
as a “religious duty.” It
is thus an extremely difficult task to call Muslims to
peaceful Islam. Such a mission involves the risk of
