[conspire] NYLXS Press Release on the OLPC Project

[Ruben Safir]

On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 07:13:41PM +0100, Nick Moffitt wrote: > Ruben
Safir: > > It doesn't translate to struggle.  Struggle has no connotation.
> > You are wrong on both counts.  

> Actually, I'm not wrong on either
count.  

A lot of time and effort has gone into researching 'Jihad',
and it is not a translation for the word struggle and it ALWAYS has a
meaning as Rick eluded to, related to a moralistic endevor.  You struggle
with your plumbing.  Nobody would Jihad with it.   In fact, I just sat
through a 3 hour lecture at the UN on the translation of Arabic and Hebrew
and the problems of interpreting political speech and its very clear
by any linguest worth his salt that the term Jihad in Arabic is unique
and the word for struggle in the Hebrew root Mem Aleph Bet Cuff.

Argue all you want wether the use of the term Jihad is necessarly violent
canotation or not, and you'll be in good company with the best translaters
the UN and the world has to offer.  Pretend that the term is devoid of 
inherent religous meaning would be completely wrong and a position that
is taken up by only a handful of propagandaist and refuted readily and
systematically by competent linguists, many of whom are paid long hours
trying to figure out if some tribal leader is declaring war in Sudan 
or just trying to ban alcohol.


Even WIKIpedia with it's zillion of anti-semetic guest editors who pour
over every Arab and Jewish article states this front up and center.

http://i-cias.com/e.o/jihad.htm

Jihad Arabic: jihād

Islamic term, Arabic for 'battle; struggle; holy war for the religion'.
Jihad has two possible definitions: the greater, which is the spiritual
struggle of each man, against vice, passion and ignorance. This
understanding of jihad has been presented by apologetics of modern times,
but is an understanding of the term rarely used by Muslims themselves.
The lesser jihad is simplified to cover holy war against infidels and
infidel countries, aiming at spreading Islam. This kind of jihad is
described in both the Koran and in the hadiths.

Wikepedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious
duty of Muslims. In Arabic, Jihad means "strive" or "struggle". Jihad
appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic
expression "striving in the way of Allah (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".[1][2]
A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid, the plural is mujahideen.

A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this Islamic
duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official
status.[3] In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10
Practices of the Religion.

According to scholar John Esposito, Jihad requires Muslims to "struggle
in the way of God" or "to struggle to improve one's self and/or
society."[3][4] Jihad is directed against the devil's inducements,
aspects of one's own self, or against a visible enemy.[1][5] The four
major categories of jihad that are recognized are Jihad against one's
own self (Jihad al-Nafs), Jihad of the tongue (Jihad al-lisan), Jihad
of the hand (Jihad al-yad), and Jihad of the sword (Jihad as-sayf).[5]
Islamic jurisprudence focuses on regulating the conditions and practice
of Jihad as-sayf, the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law,
and thus the term Jihad is usually used in fiqh manuals in reference to
military combat.[6][5]

http://www.al-islam.org/al-serat/jihad-nasr.htm


Al-Serat


The Spiritual Significance of Jihad Seyyed Hossein Nasr Vol. IX, No. 1

And those who perform jihad for Us, We shall certainly guide them in
Our ways, and God is surely with the doers of good. (Quran XXXIX; 69)

You have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad. (Hadith)

The Arabic term jihad, usually translated into European languages as
holy war, more on the basis of its juridical usage in Islam rather
than on its much more universal meaning in the Quran and Hadith,
is derived from the root jhd whose primary meaning is to strive or to
exert oneself. Its translation into holy war combined with the erroneous
notion of Islam prevalent in the West as the 'religion of the sword'
has helped to eclipse its inner and spiritual significance and to distort
its connotation. Nor has the appearance upon the stage of history during
the past century and especially during the past few years of an array of
movements within the Islamic world often contending or even imposing each
other and using the word jihad or one of its derivative forms helped to
make known the full import of its traditional meaning which alone is of
concern to us here. Instead recent distortions and even total reversal of
the meaning of jihad as understood over the ages by Muslims have made it
more difficult than ever before to gain insight into this key religious
and spiritual concept.

http://www.en.articlesgratuits.com/the-origin-of-islamic-jihad--and-its-significance-id1036.php


The Origin of Islamic Jihad and Its Significance Jihad, Islam, Prophet
Muhammed, Christains, Jews

The word ‘JIHAD’ means “HOLY WAR’ originated from the teaching
of Prophet Muhammed in the spreading of Islam across the globe. The
main reason why the ‘JIHAD’ was introduced is that Prophet Muhammed
teachings from the Holy Koran was not accepted by the accient world. He
was having three major enemies this include, his own people known as
the pagan Arabs, the Christains and the Jews.

The truth of the matter is that large percentage of his fellow Arab
brethern did not accept Christainity and Judiasm which the Arab brethen
regarded as the relgions of their ememies whose teachings in the Holy
Bible is about how God brought the people of Isreal as the most holy
people God had choosen on earth and about how God brought out the people
of Isreal from the house of bondage in Egypt and went further to fight
and taken over all their lands because they were sinners and illegally
occuying their lands with force. So with all this in mind, only very few
accepted the religions of both Chritain and Judiasm while majority of them
worshipped the gods of woods and stones and be involved in the worshiping
of those Gog and Magog gods. Gog and Magog religions are those religions
outside Judiasm, Christainity and Islam which do not recognize the God
of Abraham as the Supreme God that created the whole universe rather
claim equal with God or claiming that their gods are superior to him.

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90368225

Introduction

Comprehensive scholarly study of the phenomenon of "holy war," or war
that is understood by its adherents and warriors as divinely sanctioned, 1 is
surprisingly uncommon, this despite the ongoing prominence of news re­
ports and discussion about militant groups and even leaders of nation-states
threatening or claiming to engage in "holy war." The only exception to this rule
is the study of war in the Hebrew Bible, a subdiscipline begun by Julius Wellhausen
in his Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel in 1885. Friedrich
Schwally coined the now common term "holy war" (heilige Krieg) in his mono­
graph by that name published in 1901, 2 and a substantial volume and variety of
excellent scholarship as well as popular works have been published on the topic
to this day. 3 Some scholarly studies have been written also on holy war in the
context of the medieval Christian Crusades, particularly as a possible deviation
from the Western concept of the "just war." 4

http://www.al-islam.org/al-serat/jihad-nasr.htm

 
  	
Al-Serat
	
 
The Spiritual Significance of Jihad 
Seyyed Hossein Nasr 
Vol. IX, No. 1 

And those who perform jihad for Us, We shall certainly guide them in Our ways, and God is surely with the doers of good. (Quran XXXIX; 69) 

You have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad. (Hadith) 

The Arabic term jihad, usually translated into European languages as holy war, more on the basis of its juridical usage in Islam rather than on its much more universal meaning in the Quran and Hadith, is derived from the root jhd whose primary meaning is to strive or to exert oneself. Its translation into holy war combined with the erroneous notion of Islam prevalent in the West as the 'religion of the sword' has helped to eclipse its inner and spiritual significance and to distort its connotation. Nor has the appearance upon the stage of history during the past century and especially during the past few years of an array of movements within the Islamic world often contending or even imposing each other and using the word jihad or one of its derivative forms helped to make known the full import of its traditional meaning which alone is of concern to us here. Instead recent distortions and even total reversal of the meaning of jihad as understood over the ages by Muslims have made it more difficult than ever before to gain insight into this key religious and spiritual concept.  

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Jihad

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
ji·had    Audio Help   /dʒɪˈhɑd/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ji-hahd] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1.	a holy war undertaken as a sacred duty by Muslims.
2.	any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle.
Also, jehad.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=jihad

jihad Look up jihad at Dictionary.com
    1869, from Ar., usually translated as "holy war," lit. "struggle, contest, effort," from inf. of jahada "he waged war, he applied himself to." Used for any doctrinal crusade since c.1880.





Ruben

> -- 
> You are not entitled to your opinions.               Nick Moffitt
>                                                     nick at zork.net

Instead of HTML maybe I can post the next message in the headers ;)

Ruben

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