Muslim Scholars: It’s Not Jihad, It’s Hirabah

As part of the ideological “war on terrorism”, Muslim scholars are seeking to engage in an ideological battle within Islam to replace the word jihad with a term that labels terrorists as cowardly pirates who kill women and children, which in Islam is the crime of hirabah. Because the word jihad roughly means “religious effort,” the West can come off as attacking the daily life of ordinary Muslims, while terrorists get away with wrapping their crimes in religious phraseology. Muslim scholars are meeting in Washington with US officials to change this. “When people carelessly dump on jihad, it has an immediate polarizing effect,” said Khaled Abou el Fadl, a professor of Islamic law at UCLA who will attend the meeting. “It may not change much, but it allows Muslims and non-Muslims to say something about terrorists without appearing to malign Islamic theology.” “We should use language to move moderates toward the West and quarantine the extremists,” added Muqtedar A. Khan, director of international studies at Adrian College.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.